
Class _ 

Book.- 

Copyrights 



1L__ 



• ""•;. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE PARISH 



THE PARISH 

ITS LIFE, ITS ORGANIZATION, 
ITS TEACHING MISSION, 

AND 

ITS DIVINE CONTACTS 
A Handbook for the Clergy and Laity 

BY 

REV. WILLIAM A. R. GOODWIN, D.D., 

y 

Rector of St. Paul's Church, 

Rochester, New York 

With Introduction by 
Rt. Rev. Charles Henry Brent, D.D., LL.D. 



^ 



MOREHOUSE PUBLISHING CO. 
MILWAUKEE, WIS. 
1921 






COPYRIGHT BY 

MOREHOUSE PUBLISHING CO. 
1921 



MAR 12 1321 
©CI.A608686 



[si 



f 



DEDICATION 

/ TO 

L The Rt. Rev. Arthur Selden Lloyd, D.D., 

who, through the years in which he served as the 
President of the Board of Missions, while helping to 
lead the Church into the more perfect organization 
which now exists, ever sought to develop loyalty and 
devotion to the Church as the Body of Christ, a 
living and life-giving organism, called and commis- 
sioned by the Incarnate One to give the revelation 
of the Father to all His Children, that they might 
find freedom and the more abundant life. 



INTRODUCTION 
By the Rt. Rev. Chaeles H. Brent, D.D., 

Bishop of Western New York 

Eeligious literature seems to mark out Jethro 
as the father of the group system. He saw that it was 
bad for the health of his son-in-law to continue to 
carry the burden of detail under which Moses was 
staggering in loyalty to his responsibility as a divinely 
appointed leader. Moreover, it was necessary for the 
welfare of the people that they should share in 
administrative responsibility. So Jethro proposed 
group organization, which Moses put into immediate 
effect with complete success. 

My friend Dr. Goodwin in this book plays the part 
of a modern Jethro to the clergy of to-day. The 
whole scheme of organization sketched by the author 
of this book is sound and practical. But the key to 
its effectiveness is the group system. Like all useful 
machinery it must be handled by a master mechanic 
who knows its construction. No rector of a parish 
can fail to get benefit from a close study of these 

vii 



The Parish 

pages. Of course he must recognize that machinery 
never takes care of itself, and where he has organized 
his parish, whether on these or similar lines, he must 
give it daily and careful oversight. It is necessary to 
utter this warning because parishes are sometimes 
devasted by ill-digested schemes that are left to run 
themselves. Of course the only running they can do 
is to run down. 

The main value of this book consists in two 
things. First, its tone and aim is moral and spiritual. 
Nothing is herein suggested which does not have as 
its conscious end the nurture, edification, and in- 
spiration of the parishioner. The mechanical ceases 
to be applied mathematics because of the temper and 
purpose pervading it. Phillips Brooks was once being- 
conducted over a parish house when such agencies 
were new to the Church. After an interesting in- 
spection of the building and its equipment, he said: 
"Soon I suppose we shall hear the creaking of 
machinery !" Machinery that is honestly dedicated 
to the Kingdom of God never creaks. 

In the second place, the author writes not as a 
doctrinaire but as a conscientious and experienced 
pastor. He has tried out what he recommends and 
it has not been found wanting. Like all Virginia 
Seminary men he counts the world as his field of 
operation, and never fails to relate the local to the 
universal. The comely proportions of his proposed 
organization, of worship, thought, and action, form 
the hallmark of its value. 

We must recognize in these days of multiform 
enterprises that organization well carried out is not a 

viii 



Introduction 

burden but a relief. It is a labor-saving device. 
This, however, does not mean that it is a means by 
which a lazy rector can shift personal responsibility 
from himself to a machine. It is not calculated to 
shorten his eight-hour day, but rather to enable him 
to use it to better advantage. Only the diligent can 
make effective use of organization. What is pro- 
posed in these pages is intended to aid men who are 
already bent on using their vitality up to the hilt, to 
use it effectively and economically. The author 
wisely emphasizes the teaching mission of the Church. 
We who have been taught from seminary days the 
truths of the Faith are easily blind to the fact that 
those whom we address from our pulpits have not had 
our advantages, and that what they need chiefly is 
not moral reflections or ardent exhortations but 
simple instruction in all that is vital to the religion 
of Jesus Christ. Both in pulpit and classroom the 
Church to-day has need of systematic, definite in- 
struction. The commissioned teacher has authority 
to say things with distinctness. His personal ex- 
perience equips h im to say repeatedly with St. John : 
"T know," "TTe know." Without this there can be no 
spiritual progress in a parish. Church schools are 
improving and week-day religious instruction for 
children is slowly gaining public approval. But 
adults are in danger of being left to starve. 

Dr. Goodwin sees all this clearly, and his book 
is designed to aid men who, in the loneliness and 
isolation of country cures or the weary bustle of the 
city parishes, need such a mentor and stimulus as 
this book provides. I thank him for giving it to us, 



The Parish 

and trust that it will have wide — I will not say 
"reading" but — study. 

25 October, 1920. Charles Henry Brent, 

Bishop of Western New York. 



CONTENTS 

Page 
Introduction by the Rt. Rev. Charles H. Brent, 

D.D., LL.D., Bishop of Western New York vii 

CHAPTER I 
The Church as a Living Organism 1 



CHAPTER II 
The Organization of the Parish ----- 11 
Diagram. 

The Parish Organization. 
The Parish as it is now Organized. 
The New Plan of Parish Organization. 
The Central or Parish Executive Council. 
The Coordinating Committee. 
The Church Service League. 

The Woman's Branch of the Church Service League. 
Young People's Church Service League. 
The Parish Group Organization. 

(a) The Group Organization for Instruction. 

(b) The Group Organization and Service. 

(c) Men's Units of the Group Organization. 

( d ) Group Organization in the Country Parish. 

(e) Group Secretaries. 

(f) Representatives of United Offering and Little 

Helpers. 

(g) The Permanent Every-Member Canvass Com- 

mittee. 

xi 



The Parish 

(h) What can we give people to do? 
(i) Avoiding Group Isolation. 

CHAPTER in 

The Teaching Mission of the Church. 

A. The Divine Commission and the Church's 

Responsibility -------- 41 

The Religious Education of the Young. 

Week-day Religious Education. 

The Young People's Service of Worship. 

The Extension of the Church Teaching System. 

When Part of the Parish Goes off to School. 

The Family Altar. 

Group Class Instruction. 

The Church Newspaper. 

B. Teaching the Fundamentals - - - - 56 

Diagram. 

The Incarnation. 

Sacrifice. 

Eternal Life Now and Hereafter. 

The Holy Spirit and the Mission of the Church. 

C. The Great Essentials 63 

Holy Baptism. 
The Holy Communion. 
The Approach. 
The Scripture Witness. 
The Holy Mystery. 
Holy Orders. 

The Holy Bible. (A contribution by the Rt. Rev. 
David L. Ferris, D.D., Suffragan Bishop of 
Western New York.) 
Faith. 
Prayer. 
Other Essentials. 

Holy Matrimony. 

xii 



Contents 

CHAPTEE IV 

Church Teaching and the Reconstruction 

Problem 87 

The call for a radical application of conservative 
fundamental Truth. 

CHAPTER V 
The Pastor and His People 96 

CHAPTER VI 
Parish Harmony Notes --------- 107 

CHAPTER VII 

Worship and Service ---------- 112 

Church Attendance and Loyalty. 

Nine Reasons for Attending Churchy by Theodore 

Roosevelt. 
The Catholic Liturgy and Catholic-mindedness. 
Service. 

Christian Stewardship. 
The Stewardship Account Book. 
In Conclusion. 

APPENDIX 

What the Congregation may expect of the Vestry. 
What the Vestry may expect of the Congregation. 
Subjects Suggested for the use of Group Classes. 
What the Department of Religious Education may ask of 

the Parish. 
What the Department of Social Service may ask of the 

Parish. 
What the Department of Missions may ask of the Parish. 
The Church Newspapers. (Subscription price and address.) 
Lists of Books Suggested for Reading. 



xiu 



CHAPTER I 

The Church as a Living Organism 

The Recorded Revelation 

Eph. 1 : 22, 23. The Church is His Body, the fulness 

of Him who filleth all in all. 

Eph. 5: 23. Christ is the Head of the Church. 

Col. 1: 18. Christ is the Head of the Body, the 

Church. 

Col. 2: 9, 10. In Christ dwelleth all the fulness of 

the Godhead bodily. And ye are com- 
plete in Him, which is the head of all 
principality and power. 

Eph. 1 : 10. That in the dispensation of the ful- 

ness of times he might gather to- 
gether in one all things in Christ, 
both which are in heaven, and which 
are on earth; even in him. 

Eph. 4: 11-13. He gave some, apostles, . . . for the 

building up of the body of Christ. 

Rom. 12: 5. So we, being many, are one body in 

Christ, and every one members one 
of another. 

1 Cor. 12: 27. Now ye are the body of Christ. 

1 Cor. 6: 19. Know ye not that your body is the 

temple of the Holy Ghost which is in 
you? . . . therefore glorify God in 
your body, and in your spirit which 
are God's. 

1 



The Parish 

St. John 15: 5. I am the vine, ye are the branches. 

Acts 1: 8. Ye shall be witnesses unto me. (Read 

Acts 1, 1-11.) 

St. Matt. 28: 18-20. And Jesus said, All power is given 
unto me in heaven and in earth. Go 
ye therefore, and teach all nations, 
baptizing them into the Name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost; Teaching them to observe all 
things whatsoever I have commanded 
you. And, lo, I am with you alway, 

EVEN UNTO THE END OF THE AGES. 

The Church as a Living Organism 
The Church is the body of Christ. When this is 
said we are not using a figure of speech. We are 
stating a fact. The Church exists because the Son 
of God came to earth on a mission which has not been 
completed. The method of His manifestation and 
ministry was, and still is, the Incarnation. He was 
"made man". In and through our nature He re- 
vealed God. He said, "He that hath seen Me hath 
seen the Father." The Gospels tell us what "He 
began to do and teach". It was but a beginning. He 
founded and commissioned His Church to carry on 
the mission for which he became and remains In- 
carnate. The Acts of the Apostles is the first book 
of Church history, and is also the continuation of the 
Gospel history of Jesus. He did not go away. He 
became invisible in His Church, and the Acts of the 
Apostles and the Christlike acts of all Christians are 
the acts of the invisible but ever present Christ, who 
lives and works in His Body, the Church, to continue 
what He "began to do and teach", that all men might 
come to see and know their Father. 



The Church as a Living Organism 

"God is Love." Because His love is universal, 
the Body in which He chooses to express and reveal 
His love must be a Catholic Body with a Catholic 
mission. It must be designed for and related to all 
men everywhere. The heart of God can not be satis- 
fied until the hand and voice of His Body reaches not 
only His nearest but His farthest child. The Father 
can not be fully known by any of His children until 
He is known by and revealed through all of them. 
To make Him known and loved everywhere that His 
will may be done upon earth as it is done in Heaven 
is the mission of the Church. 

The Christ, who is the Head of the Church, in 
calling us to be members of His Body reveals a divine 
love and an infinite patience. He knows what is in 
man. He knows the coldness of the human heart, 
the slowness of the human mind, and man's self- 
will. Xevertheless, He has chosen and called us to 
be the Body in which He dwells and upon which He 
depends. Because He loves us, He patiently works 
through us that we may share His Sonship and be- 
come partakers of the divine nature. Thus He 
brings "many sons into the glory of His perfect life". 

Because the Church is His Body it is a living 
organism. The Churchman should never let the or- 
ganization side of the Church's life make him forget 
this. The organization must serve the organism. It 
must have a corporate Christ consciousness. The 
members of every Church organization should ever 
remember that they are simply seeking to function 
through the organization as members of the organism 
which is Christ's living Body. The organizations in 



The Parish 

the Church can help make this truth vital and real 
by loyalty to the great fundamental teachings of the 
Church through individual and corporate obedience 
to the call of Christ to His Body to follow Him and 
share in His experiences. 

This call of the Father comes to us over and over 
again in the round of the Christian Year. 

(a) In Advent we are reminded that the Christ is 
ever coming more fully into His Body and into 
His Kingdom, and the voice that spoke to the 
Virgin speaks to us also, asking for our humanity 
for the incarnation of God. Every organization 
of women should observe the season by quiet 
hours and a corporate Communion. 

(b) Christmas calls us to Bethlehem, but it calls 
us also to a great consecration. There are 
palaces and homes still fast closed to Him who 
is ever seeking to be born in human hearts. Too 
often still "there is no room for Him". Organ- 
izations which repair the church and sew gar- 
ments, but which hear not the angel message 
and music all through the year calling life to 
adoration, may fill up time but fail to fulfill a 
worth-while purpose. They sometimes offer 
material and mechanical substitutes for that ser- 
vice and fellowship which would enrich the soul 
and build up the Body of Christ. 

(c) Epiphany calls for a continuous manifestation 

of His indwelling Presence. It reminds us that 
we are "His witnesses". It speaks to the human 
of a divine stewardship. It points to the tern- 



The Church as a Living Organism 

pies of the Holy Ghost and bids us keep the 
windows clean that the Light of the world may 
not be hidden by the darkness of self -indulgence. 

(d) Lent calls us to come apart into a solitary place. 
It seeks to make better known the truth that 
makes us free. It is the call of the Church to 
meditation, study, self-examination, and self- 
mastery, and asks of us the denial of self for 
the enrichment of self and the life of the world. 
It sometimes happens that the organizations in 
a parish are so blinded to the nature of the 
Church as an organism that even Lent makes no 
change in their formal mechanical programme; 
and, without study classes, and without cor- 
porate Communions, they go on serving and 
meeting ; doing things which add to the finances 
and the annual report but leave the spiritual life 
of the organization and the parish unenriched by 
any new vision and without the inspiration and 
power which comes from close and conscious 
communion with Christ in study, in prayer, and 
in Eucharist. 

(e) Good-Friday. This is the deepest and highest 
call of the Father to the heart of humanity. It 
is, however, the call to which man is most in- 
sensible and least responsive. The cross still 
"Towers o'er the wrecks of time", and the wreck- 
age has been much greater of late because of 
man's unsubdued selfishness and uncrucified 
"will to power". The home, the State, and in- 
ternational goodwill and world peace are all 

5 



The Parish 

cross-shadowed. They are not placed in right 
relation to this one supreme symbol of victory. 
Behind or at the foot of the cross are the gloom 
and despair and degradation of self-seeking and 
rebellion. Lifted up upon it they will catch the 
gleam and glory of the Life that conquered. 
They have not the faith for the great adventure. 
They have not the courage to follow their 
Master. Until the day dawns when a new- 
visioned faith will inspire in men the courage to 
hear and answer the call of the Father to follow 
after the Son of God in the path of life which 
leads over Calvary and through crucifixion to the 
more abundant life, there will be divorce and 
industrial discord, and international hatred, 
covetousness, greed, and war. The Cross marks 
the only road to peace. From the altar it seeks, 
too often in vain, to speak to the Church. When 
its meaning there is seen and its call answered, 
the organization becomes an organism, for 
through death Christ's Body still passes into 
new and higher manifestations of life. 

(f) Easter bears perennial witness to the Church 
that her Lord and Master is the Incarnate, 
Living Christ. It witnesses to the fact that 
"God hath already given unto us Eternal Life 
and that this Life is in His Son." As Christ- 
mas speaks of the mobilizing of the members 
into His Body, as Lent calls the mobilized body 
into the training camp, Easter points to the 

6 



The Church as a Living Organism 

heavenly armor, the panoply of the divine 
equipment. 

(g) Ascension Day points to the divine and vic- 
torious Leader who promises "all power" and an 
"Ever Presence". He is at the head of the 
army. It is His cause. It cannot fail. 

(h) Whitsuxday says to the mobilized, trained and 
equipped, and divinely led body, "Carry on". 
It points the way from victory unto victory to 
the destined day when "the kingdom of this 
world shall become the kingdom of our Lord". 
It points to martyrs and saints who have led the 
way through "peril, toil, and woe" and bids us 
follow in their train, and promises victory, not 
by human might or power, but "by My spirit, 
saith the Lord". It is because He, the living, 
personal, ever present Spirit, dwelleth in the 
Church and empowers its members that the or- 
ganization becomes and continues an organism: 
the Living Bodv of the Living and Incarnate 
Christ. 

(i) Trinity Sunday calls the Church to worship 
God revealed in Christ, and made known through 
His eternal Spirit, with reverence as becomes 
the finite approaching the Infinite One. Faith 
is not asked to understand but to worship Him 
who is the self-revealing and self-giving God, 
whose name is Father and whose nature is Love. 
The truth to which Trinity Sunday bears wit- 
ness is personified and communicated to the 



The Parish 

Church in the Holy Eucharist, that the Divine 
Life and sacrifice may be extended through the 
continuous Body of Christ in which Christ in- 
carnate continues to reveal the Father to His 
children and continues also to present the eternal 
divine sacrifice once forever offered on Calvary, 
but perpetually offered to and through His 
Living Body, the Church. Before the Church 
can vitally function as an organization, it must 
become and remain continuously conscious of 
itself as an organism, called and ordained to be 
the Living Body of the Living Christ to extend 
His Incarnation and to be His witness. 

KEY TO THE DIAGRAM 

"Plan of Parish Organization" 

The plan of parish organization outlined in the chart is 
designed to bring the organization of the parish into har- 
mony with the new plan of organization of the General 
Church, which plan is also being followed in many dioceses. 

The Rector and Vestry 

The position and authority of the rector and vestry is 
recognized by the canons of the Church. Other parochial 
organizations act with delegated power and under the su- 
pervision and direction of the rector and vestry. The vestry 
acts in the parish in lieu of the Department of Finance. 

The Parish Executive Council 

The parish Executive Council should be appointed by 
the vestry upon nomination of the rector, who will, doubt- 
less, consult with those who are interested in the work of 
the several departments before making his nominations. 

Each department of the Executive Council should be 

8 



t 



PLAN OF PARISH ORGANIZATION 



DEPARTMENT A 

THE RECTOR 
AND VESTRY 



THE PARISH EXECUTIVE COUNCIL 



DEPARTMENT R. E. 
5 MEMBERS 

RELIGIOUS 
EDUCATION 



DEPARTMENT S. S. 
5 MEMBERS 

CHRISTIAN 
SOCIAL SERVICE 



DEPARTMENT M. 
5 MEMBERS 



MISSIONS AND 
CHURCH EXTENSION 



"3, 15, 22, and 25 
(All Missionary Education) 



DEPARTMENT P. 
3 MEMBERS 



PUBLICITY 

* 24 AND 25 



• EACH DEPARTMENT HAS OVERSIGHT OF THE SOCIETIES INDICATED BY THE NUMBERS 



COORDINATING COMMITTEE 

(COMPOSED OF ONE OR TWO REPRESENTATIVES FROM DEPARTMENTS R. E., S. S., 

AND M., THE PRESIDENT AND DIRECTORS OF THE CHURCH SERVICE LEACUE 

AND THE MAJOR OF THE CROUP ORGANIZATION, TO COORDINATE 

PARISH PROCRAMME OF EDUCATION AND SERVICE) 



THE CHURCH SERVICE LEAGUE 

TO SERVE THE PARISH, THE COMMUNITY, THE DIOCESE, THE NATION, THE WORLD 



PRESIDENT OF THE CHURCH SERVICE LEAGUE 



CHURCH SCHOOL 
BRANCH OF C.S.L. 





A DIRECTOR 






UNITS 


DEPT. 


1 


PARISH SCHOOL 


R E. 


2. 


WEEK-DAY SCHOOL 






OF RELIC. EDUC. 


RE 


3. 


SCHOOL OF EXPRES- 






SION 


RE. 


4. 


JR. BROTHERHOOD 


RE 


5. 


CANDIDATES' CLASS 






G. F. S. 


RE 


6. 


BOY SCOUTS 


RE. 


7. 


GIRL SCOUTS 


RE 


8. 


BOYS' CHOIR 


RE 


9. 


SOCIAL AND SERVICE 
CIRCLE (boys and girls 






between 16 and 21) 


RE 



NOTE. These are all related to the 
other departments in fulfillment of the 
five.fold responsibility, to the Parish, 
the Community, the Diocese, the Na- 
tion, and the World. 



MEN'S BRANCH 
OF C. S. L. 



A DIRECTOR 

• UNITS DEPT. 

10. PARISH VESTRY A. 

11. BRO. OF ST. ANDREW RE 

12. MEN'S CLUB S. S. 

a. Motor Corps 

b. Hospital Visiting 

c. Hospital Quartette 

d. Usher and 
Hospitality 
Committee 

13. MEN'S BIBLE CLASS R E 



WOMEN'S BRANCH 
OF C. S. L. 



A DIRECTRESS 

» UNITS DEPT. 

14. ALTAR GUILD R E. 

15. WOMAN'S AUXILIARY M. 

16. DAUGHTERS OF KING R. E 

17. GIRLS' FRIENDLY SOC. S. S. 

18. S. BARNABAS' GUILD S. S. 

19. MOTHERS' CLUB S. S. 

20. PARISH AID COMM. A. 

21. CH. PERIOD. CLUB S. S. 

22. WOMAN'S C. S. L. AT 
LARGE (women not en- S. S. 
rolled in other organiza- & 
tions.) M. 



23. THE PARENTS' LEAGUE, DEPT. R. E. 



24. THE PARISH NEWSPAPER, Dept. P. 
" NOTE. These Utters indicate the Department of the Executive Council 
which has special oversight of the organization. 



PARISH GROUP 
BRANCH OF C. S. L. 

PARISH N.-W. C. UNIT (25) 



A MAJOR 

CROUPS DEPT. 

GROUP No. 1 
A Captain R E 

A Croup Secretary 
A Man Lieutenant S. S. 

A Woman Lieutenant M. 

A Boy Lieutenant & 

A Girl Lieutenant P. 

A Croup Class Leader 

CROUP No. 2, 3, 4, etc 

(from 15 to 25 families to a Group) 

THE VESTRY GROUP 

THE WOMAN'S AUX. CROUP 

THE C. F. S. CROUP 

(These may prefer to meet as 
organizations for study rather than 
in geographical groups.) 

GROUP NORMAL CLASS 



U this Chart is drawn on enlarged scale for Parish House use, the names of the members of the Departments and of the Coordinating Committee should be written In and th. 
names of all organizations which function in the parish be Inserted in the Church Service League. 



Plan of Parish Organization 

composed of from three to five members, with power to 
enlarge their number. It would be well to have the vestry 
represented in the membership of each department. Each 
department should have special oversight of the work done 
by the parish organizations indicated by the numbers. The 
work of many of the organizations should; however, express 
the ideals and help carry out the programme of all three 
departments. The School of Expression, for instance, is 
distinctly related to the departments of Missions and Social 
Service. It does the work formerly done by the Junior 
Auxiliary, but is more comprehensive in both its member- 
ship and its interests. The letters placed opposite each 
organization indicate the department of the Parish Council 
to which the organization is primarily responsible. Each 
department should make a complete survey of the needs of 
all parish organizations falling under its supervision and 
also survey and report all work in the "five-fold field of 
service" which the parish should undertake. 

The Coordinating Committee 

This committee should be composed of one or two mem- 
bers from each department and also of the president and 
directors of the Church Service League and the major of the 
group organization. It should coordinate the parish pro- 
gramme of education, not alone for the children of the Church 
but for its adult membership also. It should receive from the 
three departments their programmes of work and, in con- 
sultation with the Council of the Church Service League, 
apportion the work outlined by the three departments 
among the various organizations of the parish and receive 
reports as to the work assigned. This report should be 
made by the chairman of the Church Service League. 

The Church Service League 

This is an organization created by the General Conven- 
tion. It is designed to federate and coordinate all existing 
organizations in the parish and also to enlist the service 
and cooperation of the members of the parish not at present 
enrolled in any organization. It is composed of branches, 



The Parish 

as indicated in the chart. Each parish will federate in the 
Church Service League all organizations which exist in the 
parish and thus bring them into the closer unity of parish 
life. It cooperates with the three departments through the 
coordinating committee. Where the plan outlined is fol- 
lowed, each parish should have a large chart drawn in which 
the names of department members, of the coordinating com- 
mittee, and of the officers of the Church Service League 
should be written. 

The Council of the Church Service League should be 
composed of the directors of the different branches of the 
League and the heads of all parish organizations. 

The Parish Group Organization 

No parish can afford to be without this organization. 
No parish can fully carry out the Nation-wide Campaign 
programme of education and publicity without it. The 
method and purpose of the group organization is described 
in the text. In addition to group officers mentioned in the 
chart, each group should have a secretary to be responsible 
for keeping the parish census cards up to date, reporting 
any changes of address through the group major to the 
rector or parish secretary. The group organization is for 
fellowship, instruction, parish visiting, literature distribu- 
tion, social service, and census upkeep. It is also the re- 
cruiting agency of the Church Service League. 

The Nation-wide Campaign 

The Nation-wide Campaign is more permanent than its 
name implies. It is the organizing, coordinating, educating, 
and promoting agency of the Presiding Bishop and Council. 
The Presiding Bishop and Council, as well as the diocesan 
bishop and his Council, look to the parishes of the Church 
and depend upon them to fulfil the Church's one great 
mission. The rector and his Parish Council look to every 
Churchman for loyal cooperation. A complete plan of 
parish organization should enlist the service of the entire 
membership of the Church. 



10 



CHAPTER II 

The Organization of the Parish 

The necessity for thinking of the Church as a 
living organism has been first stated because it is of 
prime importance. Because, however, the Church is 
the human body of Christ, it must, of necessity, make 
use of human means for the accomplishment of its 
mission. Its work cannot be left to individuals work- 
ing separately. The Christ organized His apostles 
and His disciples and sent them forth in ordered 
ways and to ordered places. He also organized His 
own Incarnate life in the light of and in conformity 
to the established system. He went, "as He was 
wont", to worship at accustomed times and observed 
the national feast days of the Jewish Church, of 
which He was a member. 

It is necessary to organize the Church, and the 
organization should be made complete and perfect, 
that the Body may function without friction in the 
complete fulfilment of its divinely given mission. 
The human body is organized, but its organization is 
so perfectly arranged that when it is in healthy re- 
lation to its environment, and to the inner spirit of 

11 



The Parish 

its life, we are not conscious of its skeleton or of the 
nerves and muscles, or of the vessels through which 
pulse the blood of the living organism. The organ- 
ization of the Church is also most complete when it is 
least obtrusive. The effort to secure a more perfect 
organization is justified by the fact that when se- 
cured, and rightly used, it will make the Church a 
more vital and efficient organism. It should be the 
purpose of a parish so to organize its life, for in- 
struction, for worship, and service, that the whole 
mission of the Church should be made known to the 
whole membership and so that the inspiration and 
power of individual and corporate worship may be so 
communicated to all that the will to service may be 
at one with the Master's will concerning His Body. 
Organization thus perfected looks to the free and 
full expression of the mind of Christ in and through 
His Body the Church, which is the living organism 
in which He is Incarnate. 

The Parish Organization 

The diocese, with its bishop, is the unit in the 
national organization of the Church. The parish 
is vitally related to the diocese and to the national 
branch of the Church; and, because the national 
branch of the Church is but a part of the Church 
Catholic, the parish is related to the whole Catholic 
Church and to its whole mission. Thus the whole 
Church looks to and depends upon the parish. 
The whole mission of the Church embraces the in- 
dividual, the family, the community, the diocese, the 
state, the nation, and the world. It also embraces 

12 



The Organization of the Parish 

those who have been numbered with God's saints in 
glory everlasting, and, doubtless, others also. 

At present the work of the Church is done too 
largely in water-tight compartments ; and, as a result, 
the corporate unity of the Church and the life of 
fellowship are weakened. The curse of the national 
Church is diocesanism ; of the diocese, parochialism; 
of the parish, society ism; and of the whole Church 
individualism. 

The Parish as It Is Now Usually Organized 

At present most of the parishes in the Church are 
organized upon the water-tight compartment basis. 
Each organization is largely independent of the others, 
and between them there is scarcely any bond of union. 
It frequently happens in large parishes that members 
of certain organizations never even meet the members 
of other organizations, and few in the parish have any 
idea of the scope and purpose, the failures and suc- 
cesses, of the work being done by their fellow Church- 
men. At the first meeting of the newly organized 
Parish Council in a large parish, a layman who for 
many years had been one of the most generous sup- 
porters of the Church and a regular worshipper said 
that it was the first time he had ever known the scope 
and nature of the work of his parish. 

The New Plan of Parish Organization 

The diagram, inserted between pages 8 and 9, 
showing a suggested form of parish organization, 
illustrates how the Executive Council plan of the 
General Church, the group system developed through 

13 



The Parish 

the Nation-wide Campaign, and the newly organized 
Church Service League may be correlated and made 
to embrace, unify, and coordinate the parish, enabling 
it to fulfil its mission by enlisting the largest possible 
number of interested workers who, under the plan, 
will be called, trained, and directed in helping to 
realize a unified programme. 

The necessity for a new plan of organization 
grows out of the fact that the Church has a new con- 
ception of her mission and a new programme. It 
could not reasonably be expected that rectors would 
re-organize their parishes to conform to the needs of 
a "movement", but when it is understood that we face 
a new era with a new programme, the necessity for 
having every parish fall in line and keep step be- 
comes obvious. It should also be borne in mind that 
the programme of education and service of each suc- 
ceeding year will be based upon, and presuppose the 
fulfilment of, the programme of the years preceding. 
It will thus come to pass that the parish which fails 
to organize along the lines suggested by the General 
Church will soon find itself in the position of the 
student who is called to read Caesar, but who has 
neglected to master his Latin gramm **, syntax, and 
vocabulary. Such students are always a drag upon 
the class to which they belong. 

The Central or Parish Executive Council 

The rector and vestry are the canonically con- 
stituted authority in the parish, and under the law 
of the Church are related to the diocese and the 
General Church. In the Parish Council the rector is 

14 



The Organization of the Parish 

chairman, as the Presiding Bishop is the head of the 
National Church Council. The vestry acts in lieu 
of a Department of Finance, and may be considered 
an ex-officio branch of the Parish Council. 

The rector, after consultation with those in- 
terested and best competent to advise, nominates to 
the vestry the persons to be by the vestry appointed to 
membership in the Central or Executive Council of 
the parish. This Council is composed of three de- 
partments, namely: the Department of Keligious 
Education, the Department of Christian Social Ser- 
vice, and the Department of Missions. The depart- 
ments, though differently named, are, and should 
always be considered as expressing, in different 
aspects, the one mission of the Church. The Church 
has a unified and, therefore, undivided mission to 
educate, to serve, and to make disciples of all nations. 
Social Service rendered in the parish is as much the 
Mission of the Church as China is. Some parishes 
may also deem it wise to add a Department of 
Publicity. 

Each department is composed of, say, from five to 
six appointed members with power, as in the General 
Church, to enlarge its membership. (In smaller 
parishes the number may be two or three.) The 
members appointed, or elected, should be, as far as 
seems expedient, representative of the now existing 
organizations in the parish. The membership need 
not, however, be so determined or confined. The 
persons most competent for executive leadership 
should be placed on the Council. Every parish or- 
ganization should be listed as belonging to one of the 

15 



The Parish 

departments, and a decision should be reached as to 
the responsibility of each department for every 
branch of service in which the parish is, or should be, 
interested. In cases where it is deemed advisable by 
the vestry, the money placed in the budget or col- 
lected for work which falls under the direction of 
the department may be turned over to the treasurer 
of the department to be expended by order of the 
Executive Council upon recommendation of the de- 
partment interested. In this case the department 
treasurer makes monthly or quarterly reports to the 
Council and through the Council to the vestry. 

In a certain parish $1,000 is appropriated by the 
vestry for the work of the Church school and $2,800 
for week-day Religious Education. This money is 
paid over upon requisition to the treasurer of the 
Department of Religious Education, who expends it 
under order of his department and accounts monthly 
to the vestry. In this same parish the Department 
of Missions receives, expends, and accounts for all 
funds contributed for Missions and Benevolences, in- 
cluding the contributions for the Nation-wide Cam- 
paign. These funds are kept in a separate bank from 
the one in which current expense funds are deposited. 
Each month a full accounting is made by each depart- 
ment treasurer to the parish vestry. In cases where 
the Church accounting is done in the parish house by 
a paid and expert accountant, the bookkeeping may 
be best done by the one person employed for the 
purpose. 

In organizing the Parish Council it would be well 
to have in the membership of each department at 

16 



The Organization of the Parish 

least one member of the parish vestry. This contact 
between the Council and the vestry will prove mutu- 
ally beneficial. The departments will have the 
benefit of the counsel and advice of the vestrymen 
members, and the vestry meetings will soon become 
concerned with the work of the Executive Council. 
In this way the vestry will find itself informed and 
interested in the vital work of the departments, and 
its meetings will cease to be concerned with the ma- 
terial side alone of the parish life. It has been found 
that appropriations are always most gladly made to 
enable the departments to carry on their work when 
the vestry knows from actual contact the nature and 
importance of the work which in their representative 
capacity they are asked to equip and maintain. In 
this way the needs of the departments find their pro- 
portionate place in the annual budget of the parish. 

The Coordinating Committee * 

From each department and from the several 
branches of the Church Service League there should 
be appointed representatives to serve on a Coordinat- 
ing Committee. Three of this committee, or one from 



* In the diocese of Western New York the Executive Council 
has appointed a Coordinating Committee of two each from the 
Departments of Religious Education, Social Service, and Mis- 
sions to coordinate the educational programme of the diocese. 
The programme, having been approved by each department, is 
passed up to the Department of Religious Education, which 
department assumes the responsibility for seeing it through, the 
two members on the Coordinating Committee from the Depart- 
ments of Missions and Social Service becoming ex-officio mem- 
bers of the Department of Religious Education. 

17 



The Parish 

each department, should be appointed for the purpose 
of coordinating the educational programme of the 
parish. In this way the Church school course, the 
group meeting instruction in subjects suggested from 
the three departments, and all other educational work 
planned in the parish for informing the people as to 
the one Mission of the Church, will be included in 
the parish programme of education. 

This Coordinating Committee should also be the 
medium of information and contact between the 
Executive Council, the Church Service League, and 
the group organization. The representatives from 
the Department of Social Service voice the needs of 
this department. They report, for instance, that the 
Department of Social Service needs a certain number 
of cars for taking out convalescents from hospital 
wards ; two hundred garments for an orphan home ; 
three hundred garments for social settlement work in 
the city; and certain garments for the parish poor. 
They report that a certain number of hospital visitors 
are needed, that entertainments are desired at certain 
institutions, and that a certain number of persons 
are needed for friendly visiting in industrial centers. 
The Social Service Department studies the needs of 
the social service agencies of the city or village and 
through its representatives on the Coordinating Com- 
mittee voices the need for workers or material as- 
sistance. In this way it may be possible to reestablish 
a point of contact between organized charity and the 
source of spiritual inspiration. 

The other departments do likewise. The two rep- 
resentatives from the Department of Missions ascer- 

18 



The Organization of the Parish 

tain from diocesan headquarters, or elsewhere, what 
box assignments will be made to the parish and just 
what sewing will be required. All these needs are 
considered by the Coordinating Committee and are 
passed on in written report to the Executive Council 
and by it reported to the Church Service League, 
whose representative should be in the membership of 
the Council. Thus what needs to be done is ascer- 
tained and every department is represented in the 
report and voices its complete requirements. 

The Church Service League 

This League is now a part of the national organ- 
ization of the General Church. In the parish system 
it stands definitely related to the Parish Council. 
The League is composed of all the organizations in 
the parish which are federated in its membership, and 
is designed to enlist their interest and cooperation in 
the five fields of service outlined by the Service League 
Chart. The young people of the parish are embraced 
in what is officially known as the Church School Ser- 
vice League. In the average parish it will, doubtless. 
be found wise to extend the scope of this branch of 
the League. It will include as units the Church 
school, the week-day religious school, what was the 
Junior Auxiliary, the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, 
the Junior Brotherhood, the boys' choir, and the 
girls' Candidates Class. The Junior branch of the 
League should be represented in the Council and the 
Council should see that it is supervised and coordi- 
nated and that all its units are at times brought to- 
gether and cooperate as a branch unit of the League. 

19 



The Parish 

The Woman's Branch of the Church Service League * 
should federate all woman's organizations. Ulti- 
mately some of them will lose their separate identity 
in the League. The existing and federated organiza- 
tions compose the units of the organization. In ad- 
dition there will be found many women who have 
resisted all appeals to affiliate with now existing 
organizations who may be led to respond to an invi- 
tation to enroll in the woman's branch of the League 
as "members at large'', and who will come on Thurs- 
days, or some other day, to sew for the requirements 
of the Social Service or Missionary Department, or 
do hospital, Sunday school, or district visiting. In 
this way, all the women of various societies will meet 
for a common purpose and serve together for a 
common cause. 

The Church Service League of a live parish will, 
of course, have its "men's units" also. The men's 
club, the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, and the vestry 
should be enrolled as units and compose the men's 
branch of the Church Service League. 

Miss Eva D. Corey, chairman of the Massachu- 
setts Council of the Church Service League, writes 
relative to the League as follows : 



* It would be well if uniform nomenclature could be used 
in connection with the League, (a) The organization is offi- 
cially known as "The Church Service League", (b) While the 
organization embraces all who are federated under it, age and 
sex make natural groupings indispensable within the League. 
These should be designated as "Branches", namely, the Church 
School Branch of the Church Service League, the Woman's 
Branch, and the Men's Branch. (c) Federated organizations 
should be called "Units" of the League, i. e., the Girls' Friendly 
Unit. etc. 

20 



The Organization of the Parish 




THE FIVE FIELDS OF SERVICE 



21 



The Parish 

"It should be clearly understood that a parish unit 
of the Service League should include every organiza- 
tion that exists in the parish. It is not necessary to 
have any of the national organizations to form the 
League. You form it out of what exists. If you 
have one or two branches of the national organiza- 
tions, it is not necessary to try to produce the total 
number. 

"The point is that there are just three funda- 
mental principles of the League and you apply them 
to local conditions. 

" ( 1 ) Get-together method ; a parish council where 
all interests are represented. 

"(2) A parish programme putting the whole 
strength of the parish on the whole work of the 
Church. That means covering the five fields of par- 
ish, community, diocese, nation, and world. 

"(3) Enlisting every woman (and man) in some 
form of service through the Church. Service should 
be interpreted in the widest sense; working, giving, 
praying, etc." 

Thus constituted, the Church Service League 
stands ready to answer the call of the Executive 
Council. The Coordinating Committee has reported 
to the Executive Council the specific needs of each 
department. Through the Coordinating Committee 
these needs are taken to the officers of the Church 
Service League. The Junior branch of the League is 
assigned part of the work. It is asked to make scrap- 
books for the children's wards in the local hospital 
or doll dresses and doll beds and tables, etc., for the 
missionary box. The various units of the woman's 

22 



The Organization of the Parish 

branch of the League are asked by the Coordinating 
Committee, through the officers of the League, to 
assume responsibility for certain definite garment 
making, or the woman's branch of the League as a 
whole assumes the responsibility and distributes the 
work. The executive chairman of the League should 
be a woman of high ability who has the capacity for 
winning cooperation and for seeing things through. 
The men's units of the League will find opportunity 
to share in the coordinated service. 

In one parish the Social Service Department dur- 
ing the past year secured from men in the parish over 
1,500 visits to the wards of hospitals and furnished 
numerous entertainments in institutions, besides fur- 
nishing cars through its motor corps for several out- 
ings to inmates of the Church Home and orphan 
asylums. 

The Young People's Service League 

Experience has shown the need for some organiza- 
tion in every parish to enlist the interest of the young 
people at and beyond the age when they generally 
leave the parish Sunday school. This need has been 
recognized and provided for in such organizations out- 
side of the Episcopal Church as the Ep worth League. 
It has been found that this interest can be secured 
through an organization in which the young people 
of both sexes meet together for entertainment and for 
the fulfilment of some definite programme of service. 
Entertainment alone will not prove sufficient. The 
Church cannot successfully compete with the theater, 
the moving picture show, and the entertainments pro- 

23 



The Parish 

vided in social life; and it is inexpedient to ask the 
young people of the Church to leave one form of 
amusement for another, simply because it is the 
Church that provides the entertainment. On the 
other hand, youth can be appealed to by the challenge 
to service, and where a parish programme calling for 
hospital or community visiting (which should be done 
under expert direction) and other clearly defined 
forms of service is presented it has been found that 
the young people of the Church will make glad and 
willing response. It is exceedingly important that 
they should be made to feel that the Church has need 
of them and makes provision for them in its life and 
its programme of service. 

If it be said that this programme is suited to a 
large parish alone, the writer, who has had experience 
in two comparatively small parishes, would urge a 
revision of this opinion, being convinced that the pro- 
gramme can be adapted to the small parish and village 
where, in many particulars, it is more vitally needed 
by reason of the paucity of civic provision for meeting 
human needs. 

In one parish in a country district the plan is 
being tried of having the vestry the unit basis of the 
Executive Council and parish group system. In this 
case the vestry acts in its official capacity in matters 
where its responsibilities are distinctive, but meets 
with others as a Parish Council to consider the larger 
parish needs and plan their fulfilment. 

The group organization plan and the Parish 
Council organized in a country parish would do a 
great deal to overcome the isolation which often exists 

24 



The Organization of the Parish 

and would bring neighborhood groups together under 
a central executive leadership. In this way the people 
in Trinity Church would be thinking and working in 
cooperation with the people in Christ Church, ten or 
fifteen miles away, inspired by a common ideal and 
purpose. Occasional meetings of the Parish Council 
in the country parish would bring Churchmen to- 
gether who otherwise might never know each other. 

It will be interesting to see the local adaptations 
of the new principle of coordination. It is, after all, 
the principle and its purpose which is of vital im- 
portance and which should be applied in every parish 
in order that the whole Church may know and help 
fulfil the Church's whole mission. It would be un- 
wise to seek to superimpose upon parishes working 
under certain conditions the exact details of a plan 
suited to other conditions. It will, however, be found 
that every parish of any size can and should fall in 
line and seek to find the unity of plan and purpose 
and the cooperation which comes from an Executive 
Council and a Service League and the group organ- 
ization system. 

The Parish Group Organization 

This idea is a contribution of the Nation-wide 
Campaign to the Church and must surely be con- 
served. We know of no parish where the "group" 
plan was faithfully followed where the Campaign 
failed of success. Indeed under this plan failure 
would seem to be almost impossible. It is not, how- 
ever, in relation to the Nation-wide Campaign alone 
that we speak of the group organization plan. It 

25 



The Parish 

needs to be made permanent in the life of the Church. 
It is a system of organization definitely related to all 
that has hitherto been outlined and is essential to the 
full use of Executive Council and Church Service 
League plan of organization. A bishop of the 
Church, who until recently had been the rector of a 
splendidly organized parish, said of a Nation-wide 
Campaign conference that if he were still a parish 
priest and had to select one from among all the paro- 
chial organizations to survive he would, without 
hesitation, keep the parish group organization. The 
reason is obvious to all who have had experience with 
the group plan; it would create out of itself every 
other needed organization because it is essentially 
the whole parish at school and at work. 

The plan of parish organization here outlined and 
diagrammed on the chart is the result of experience 
in the Nation-wide Campaign endeavor, together with 
changes and amendments which this experience sug- 
gested. It embodies suggestions made by members 
of twenty-one groups who met together to compare 
notes and make suggestions for the organization. 
The opinion unanimously expressed was that it would 
be a tremendous loss to the parish if the group organ- 
ization were allowed to fall to pieces. 

Out of this experience, it is suggested that the 
parish be divided into a certain number of groups, 
each group containing fifteen, twenty-five, or fifty 
contiguous families. A map should be made showing 
the group lines, and lists prepared for the captains 
of the families embraced in each group. Over the 
group organization as a whole, a major should be 

26 



The Organization of the Parish 

appointed — or, if the military terminology is not pre- 
ferred, a group director. He should be the best or- 
ganizer and most efficient man in the parish. In each 
group there should be a captain or officer directly 
responsible to the major or director. Under the 
captain there should be four lieutenants — a man, a 
woman, a boy, and a girl. These are all responsible 
to the captain or group executive, who may be either 
a man or a woman. In addition to these officers there 
should be a group secretary and two leaders, if possi- 
ble, for each group. For organization purposes this 
is the personnel of the staff. Literature for distribu- 
tion passes from major to captains, and from captains 
to lieutenants, and by the lieutenants and their assis- 
tants is personally delivered to the group members. 
The group organization is also the best possible 
plan for creating fellowship. Not only does it pro- 
duce a consciousness of unity in a common purpose, 
but it also serves admirably in the upbuilding of the 
parish. The lieutenants or group members report to 
the captain the coming of a new family into the 
parish. The captain calls and ascertains the Church 
affiliation or preference of the new family. The 
captain reports to others, asking that the family be 
called on. Just here becomes apparent the value of 
a man, a woman, a boy, and a girl lieutenant. Mrs. 
Smith calls on Mrs. Brown, the newcomer, invites her 
to church, and introduces her to the Church Service 
League. But Mr. Brown needs attention also. The 
man lieutenant is requested to call on him and bring 
him in touch with some unit of the men's branch of 
the Church Service League. Tommy Brown is called 

27 



The Parish 

on by the boy lieutenant and introduced to a boy's unit 
of the League, the Church school, and Scout Troop ; 
while the girls in the Brown family, who would not be 
impressed by the visit of Mrs. Smith to their mother, 
will be deeply impressed by a visit from the seven- 
teen-year-old girl lieutenant, who offers to introduce 
them to the girls of her Church school class, to take 
them into the Girls' Friendly Society, or into some 
other unit of the League. The Browns were lonely 
when they arrived. They will begin to feel at home 
when the group organization into which they have 
moved has done its hospitality and fellowship work. 

The Church will thus avoid the possibility, which 
now is too often an actual experience, of having the 
stranger come to church and remain a stranger. 
Those who have moved from the genial atmosphere 
of an old home parish into the midst of strangers, and 
gone unknown and unnoticed for weeks to a strange 
church, will bear testimony to the need in the Epis- 
copal Church of a plan that will cure the evil of 
leaving the rector alone to find the newcomers and 
give them welcome. The rector has many things to 
do and there is a chance that he will never find them ; 
and, even if he does, the newcomers want something 
more neighborly and, one may say, more human, than 
a pastoral call. One of the bishops of the Church 
once remarked in passing comment on a passage in 
the early part of the Acts of the Apostles, that the 
Episcopal Church was very strong on the "Apostles' 
doctrine", on the "breaking of bread and prayers", 
but was powerfully weak on "fellowship". The par- 
ish group organization gives promise of correcting 

28 



The Organization of the Parish 

this weakness. In some parishes it would produce a 
transformation corresponding to the thawing of the 
foundations of the North Pole. 

The Group Organization for Instruction 

The parish group organization furnishes an ad- 
mirable unit and system for instruction. The staff 
officers are responsible for the attendance at "group 
classes". The classes are conducted by group leaders. 
The staff officers should be resident in the group which 
they serve. The class or group leaders need not live 
within the group. In many instances it is best that 
they should not. The best leaders in the parish 
should be selected and trained. A leaders' normal 
class should be formed. The method of group in- 
struction should be the discussion rather than the 
lecture method. It would be well to have for each 
group two leaders, one to lead the group lesson and 
one to help guide the discussion. Both should attend 
the normal class. 

In some instances it may be found wise to make 
an organization such as the Girls' Friendly Society or 
Woman's Auxiliary a group unit for instruction, leav- 
ing the members free to attend or not their district 
group meeting. It will be often found that they will 
attend both classes. 

The group unit for instruction has been officially 
chosen as the method to be followed by one diocese in 
all mission study and social service instruction. 

The subjects for instruction at the group meetings 
may be determined upon by the Committee on Co- 
ordination in consultation with the group officers. 

29 



The Parish 

The Survey and the text book on the Survey by Dr. 
Sturgis are on the official programme. Other subjects 
suggest themselves. In one instance the following 
written suggestions came from group classes: 
Church History, Americanization, the Prayer Book, 
the Life of Christ, the Industrial Problem, the New 
Church Organization, What the new Church Organ- 
ization Seeks to Accomplish, the World Challenge to 
the Church. 

There is no reason why the classes should be con- 
fined to Lent. Advent and Epiphany offer oppor- 
tunities equally as good, and the early fall affords 
an excellent time for classes dealing with local prob- 
lems and the parish responsibilities. One group 
meeting in October and November, four in Advent, 
and meetings once a month from Epiphany to Lent, 
with weekly meetings during Lent, would furnish 
scope for developing an interesting scheme of 
education. 

It has been found that the group instruction 
classes greatly stimulate church attendance. One 
subject for discussion might well be, fr Why people 
should attend church and why they do not." 

It has been suggested that one lesson might be 
given in ever} 7 group in the early fall, outlining the 
Church school programme of education for the fol- 
lowing session. For this lesson the teachers in the 
Church school would make good leaders and, as a 
result of having this instruction given simultaneously 
in every group, the parents might be brought into 
closer touch and cooperation with the work of their 
children in the parish school. The opportunities for 

30 



The Organization of the Parish 

using the group organization for instruction are al- 
most limitless and the need for it is also. 

The Group Organization and Service 

The group organization is closely related to the 
Church Service League. If workers are needed to 
make response to the needs of the departments of the 
Executive Council, as ascertained by the Committee 
on Coordination, the group captains should be asked 
to voice the need to their groups. Indeed, the group 
staff should be the recruiting agents in their group 
for each and every unit of the Church Service 
League. 

In the early fall and late spring and at other times 
also, if advisable, the Executive Council, the Church 
Service League officers, and group leaders should hold 
a conference and arrange for a mass meeting of 
Council, League, and group members for a reception. 
for the unfolding of the parish programme, and. 
finally, for the annual reports. The final meeting 
might well be of the whole parish. 

Men's Units of Group Organization 

It is often found difficult, if not impossible, to get 
the men in representative numbers to attend the 
group meeting classes. It can be done if a good man 
captain or lieutenant keeps constantly on the job. 
"Where attempts meet with failure, it would be well to 
constitute the parish vestry into a group organization 
class and arrange a series of "round table conferences'"' 
for men where smoking would be allowed and in- 

31 



The Parish 

formal conference could be held. The plan has been 
tried with good success, of getting ten men in a parish 
to give a men's dinner, each of the ten inviting from 
eight to ten other men to his home, the dinner being 
followed by a round-the-fire. well directed discussion 
of a selected topic. Groups of this nature should also 
be organized among the young men of the parish. 

The Group Organization in the Country Parish 

The question has been raised as to whether the 
group organization was adaptable to the conditions 
of a country parish. The writer is convinced that 
there are no conditions under which it is more needed. 
or where it can serve a more useful purpose. Having 
spent seventeen years in a country parish where the 
three churches were from ten to twenty-five miles 
apart, where there was practically no intercourse be- 
tween the far-scattered communicants and no oppor- 
tunity for comparison of methods and interchange 
of ideas, the writer is convinced that if the group 
organization plan had been in operation the life and 
administration of this parish would have been far 
more vital and effective. 

In order to confirm this view, a letter wa^ written 
to Mr. Lewis B. Franklin. Treasurer of the Xational 
Executive Council, asking for information on this 
subject which had grown out of his experience. Mr. 
Franklin has sent the following letter from the rec- 
tor of a large country parish, which is so illuminating 
and contains so many good suggestions that it is 
eiven in full : 

32 



The Organization of the Parish 

"My dear Mr. Franklin: 

"The group organization system has been tried 
out in this parish for a little over a year and already 
has shown beyond a doubt that such organization is 
of decided practical value . The parish, with about 
ninety communicants, covers a territory of approxi- 
mately thirty square miles, serving a hundred fam- 
ilies and responding to calls for ministrations over an 
indefinite territory. In a central group, called the 
Parish Committee, are men and women who have been 
assigned as captains in the several districts to assist 
the rector in keeping in touch with all parts of the 
parish. These captains notify him of sickness, of 
new families, and of any need for immediate visiting. 
With such organization the rector has found it far 
easier to make his scattered work count. 

"The several captains are also responsible for 
transportation to the services and special meetings, 
social or spiritual, of anyone who asks for such trans- 
portation. They make sure that everyone in their 
district knows of such services and meetings. At 
intervals they visit their families in order to keep 
them in touch with the affairs of the parish. In 
short, they perform all the duties which such a group 
organization is supposed to cover, whether the parish 
is rural or urban. Already results are showing in the 
addition of new families to the parish lists, a larger 
Sunday school, better church attendance, and a better 
spirit throughout the parish. 

"The members of the parish committee are teach- 
ing in the Sunday school : one is the superintendent. 
Three have licenses for lay-reading and have gone 

33 



The Parish 

out at the request of the rector to hold mission ser- 
vices. They are on duty at the church, and stand 
ready to keep the machine^ going, and begin the 
Morning Prayer should the rector be late in return- 
ing from his mission service eight miles to the south. 
In consequence there is a feeling of sureness in the 
mind of the rector that things are going as they 
should as he hurries back to the parish church. Har- 
rowed feelings are not conducive to proper leading 
of the services. 

"The budget system has been put into operation. 
The rector's salary has been raised, assistance from 
the Archdeacon is no longer needed. In two every- 
member canvasses conducted entirely by the com- 
mittee the income of the parish has been raised from 
$800 to about $2,000. All bills have been met; ap- 
portionments paid, needed repairs made; a fund is 
well under way for a new organ; plans are being 
drawn up for a parish room extension. These re- 
sults can beyond question be traced to the group 
organization system. 

"The distinct advantage that this system has in 
a rural parish can be seen from the following faets. 
Rural parishes have been too prone to rely upon the 
efforts of the rector for all things pertaining to spirit- 
ual and temporal welfare. The rural rector must be 
a man of finance, a carpenter, a sexton, a jack of all 
trades. He must be everywhere at once. He must 
be interested in every town and community move- 
ment. All this is in addition to the calling and 
spiritual side of his work. The rural parson is but 
human and often cannot measure up to all these 

34 



The Organization of the Parish 

opportunities, especially since our younger men no 
longer seem to consider country work a true measure 
of their abilities. So much depends therefore on 
the personality of the rector that the parish tends to 
rise and fall with him. The common sense and prac- 
tical value of building up a sense of personal respon- 
sibility among the men and women of the rural parish 
can not be denied. This sense of responsibility 
must be strengthened so that there is built up in the 
parish an abiding and solid organization which can 
at least make the parish more sure of weathering in- 
efficiency on the part of its rector. Furthermore, 
there are often long periods in a rural parish when 
no resident rector can be had, and still the parish 
organization must be kept up. Too often a year 
without a rector leaves the rural parish feeble and 
discouraged and scattered, and the new rector must 
begin all over again to pick up the scattered threads, 
wasting precious months, not knowing his people, 
ignorant of the extent of his parish, till he sometimes 
becomes weary of well doing and decides to try an- 
other cure. Let him come into a parish where the 
group organization has kept the parish together, and 
he can go ahead gladly and enthusiastically to conquer 
new ground with a people who can say truly and 
honestly 'Our parish'. 

"Just let me add one bit of evidence. The f most 
skeptical parishioner' was asked the question as to 
whether he thought the group system was valuable 
in the city and not in the rural parish. i Valuable? 
Why, I think it is essential for every rural parish.' 
This remark comes from a man who opposed the 

35 



The Parish 

plan a year ago, and has seen but one year of 
operation. „ gigned _ „ 



At a recent Nation-wide Campaign regional con- 
ference it was suggested that the group captains and 
executive councils of neighboring country parishes 
might sometimes meet together for conference. 

The Group Secretaries 

In each group there should be a group secretary. 
This position demands persons with a deep sense of 
responsibility. The group secretary calls the roll at 
the group meeting and reports back to the group 
major, on cards prepared for the purpose, the names 
of those present at each group instruction class. The 
group secretary also reports to the parish secretary 
all changes of addresses, and twice a year visits every 
home in the group and corrects or verifies the parish 
census cards. In this way there comes to the rector, 
at least twice a year, a complete verification of the 
whole census record of the parish. 

Representatives of United Offering and the 
Little Helpers in Each Group 

The United Offering would become much better 
known and be more largely supported if in each group 
there was an appointed representative, who might 
well be a member of the parish branch of the 
Woman's Auxiliary. A representative in each group 
of the Little Helper's branch of the Auxiliary will 
be found most valuable. If the parish has a large 
membership, or is scattered over a wide extent of 
territory, one person can do little more than take 

36 



The Organization of the Parish 

the mite boxes around and make annual collections. 
There should be a more vital interest shown. The 
group representative should come to know the mother 
and the child. She should take an interest in its 
surroundings and its health, and, in consultation 
with experts in child welfare work, should see that 
when occasion requires the mother is wisely guided 
to take steps to bring the child in touch with those 
competent to correct any abnormality which may be 
discovered. It is the child rather than the mite box 
in which the Church should be most vitally interested. 

The Permanent Every-Member Canvass Committee 

If two laymen of experience are appointed in 
each group as permanent representatives of the every- 
member canvass, new persons coming into the parish 
will be brought immediately to share in the system- 
atic offering of the Church. The family is reported 
to the office of the Church by the group secretary 
and the group finance committee is notified. They 
call and explain the financial system of the Church, 
the items in the budget, and take the subscription 
for current expenses and the Nation- wide Campaign. 
Once each year it would be well for these representa- 
tives of the vestry to report to each group relative 
to the existing status of the Church finances, and 
as to the fulfilment of the Nation-wide Campaign 
obligation of the parish. 

What Can We Give the Parishioner to Do? 

Is it not true that many who are confirmed after- 
wards lapse into indifference because no worthy and 

37 



The Parish 

vital service is provided for them in the parish? Is 
it not also true that at times it has been found diffi- 
cult to find a sufficient number of really vital oppor- 
tunities for service to go around? The parish group 
organization goes far to solve this problem. In a 
recent confirmation class of sixteen adults, at least 
one half of the class were immediately assigned to 
service in a parish group organization. The extent 
to which the organization in a large parish lends it- 
self to this purpose is readily seen. 
Number of groups 17 

Major of group organization 1 

Captain of each, group 17 

Men Lieutenants 17 

Women Lieutenants 17 

Boy Lieutenants 17 

Girl Lieutenants 17 

Group Secretaries 17 

Representatives of United Offering 17 

Representatives of standing committee on every-member 

canvass 34 



Total number of workers 171 

In a parish where the group organization has been 
made the unit of a large social service programme in 
a down town district, the number of group workers 
has been increased, as it will be in every instance 
where the group organization is used, as it should be, 
to help carry forward any parish endeavor which 
may be undertaken. 

Avoiding Group Isolation 

Care needs to be taken to prevent the parish 
groups from becoming isolated units. This can be 

38 



The Organization of the Parish 

avoided by having neighboring groups meet together 
occasionally in instruction classes, and by having in 
the parish, at least twice a year, some meeting for 
which all the groups are responsible and which all 
are asked to attend. It would also be well to have 
occasional meetings of the group captains and group 
leaders to compare notes and exchange experiences. 
At least once a year they should be invited to a 
corporate Communion. 

The Organization and the Organism 

As we began with the expression of conviction 
that the purpose of the organization of a parish 
should be to enrich and vitalize the Body of Christ, 
which is a living organism, being the revealing Body 
to-day of the Divine Life Incarnate, so we close this 
chapter with a harking back to this thought, which 
should be held as a principle of loyalty to Christ, with 
whose Church we are dealing. Surely the creation of a 
deeper fellowship, the education of the will to loyalty 
to His mission by the instruction method, which seeks 
to reach every home in the parish, all tend to minister 
to the building up of His Body according to His will. 

That this purpose may be still further fulfilled, it 
would be well to introduce from time to time into the 
group meeting classes the discussion of such subjects 
as "The Need for Eebuilding the Family Altar", 
fr Best Methods of Cultivating the Devotional Life", 
"The Meaning and Power of Prayer", "The Call of 
the Altar and Why the Call is Neglected". * These 



* A list of subjects suggested from group instruction classes 
is given in appendix, page 125. 

39 



The Parish 

subjects inay not be in the programme of study issued 
from headquarters, but there is vital need for their 
consideration and there is no question but that a 
serious corporate consideration of subjects which 
touch the springs of the human will and move it to 
a response to the call of the Christ will be the best 
possible contribution to the carrying on of any pro- 
gramme which may come from 281 Fourth avenue, 
provided place is made, as loyalty demands there 
should be, for the study of the official programme 
also by those who are called by the Church to fulfill 
the Mission of the Incarnate One. 



40 



CHAPTER III 

The Teaching Mission of the Church 

Note. — The following chapters may serve as helps in con- 
ducting group instruction classes dealing with the subjects men- 
tioned. The normal class for leaders should be taught by the 
parish priest, or by some person selected, appointed, and in- 
structed by him. 

A. The Divine Commission and the Church'* 
Responsibility 

"Go teach" was the commission given by the 
ascending Christ to His Church in which He was 
about to become invisibly present. There is great 
need to-day to revive and extend the teaching mission 
of the Church. The Incarnate One is asking for a 
voice through which to speak His Word of Authority 
to a world in chaos. Society is coming to realize that 
secular education, divorced from religious instruction, 
is a menace to civilization. In one of the large cities 
of our country the municipal Board of Education, 
without suggestion from the Church, recently issued 
a statement to the effect that the Board had come to 
realize that week-day secular education, divorced from 
week-day religious education, was failing to produce 
the character-development essential to good citizen- 

41 



The Parish 

ship, and offered to make provision of time for week- 
day religious instruction, provided the Churches 
would make adequate provision for high grade re- 
ligious week-day education in connection with the 
work of the public schools of the city. 

Babson's Statistical Eeports have, during the past 
year, reiterated the call to consider the need for a 
revival of religion. "What the country needs is not 
more politics, not more business, not more money, but 
more religion", is the closing statement contained in 
one of these financial reports. 

A recent issue of the Manufacturers' Record also 
contained an appeal for the revival of vital religion 
as a necessary safeguard to the American home, Amer- 
ican business, and American civilization. 

It must be evident, to anyone who seriously 
thinks, that this appeal cannot be adequately an- 
swered by the Church if she is content to follow now- 
existing methods. They may be good methods as far 
as they go, but they do not go far enough. Just be- 
cause the Church holds in trust a treasure of divinely 
revealed truth which she has correlated and unified 
in her Creeds, in the teaching system of the Christian 
year, in the book of Common Prayer, and in her or- 
dered courses for religious instruction; just because 
of all this there rests upon her a grave and com- 
pelling responsibility to "go teach" far beyond the 
limits of her present endeavor. The sermon on Sun- 
day, which is too often an ethical discourse or an his- 
torical essay, or an uncorrelated exhortation to 
goodness; the parish (Sunday) school with its one- 
half hour a week teaching period; an occasional 

42 



The Teaching Mission of the Church 

week-day mission study or Bible class, composed of a 
limited and generally comparatively small number of 
people, represents the average norm of religious 
education now being given by the Church in the 
average parish. The rest of the time people spend 
learning from other teachers. In private they may 
supplement the instruction given by the Church by 
their devotional reading and by the weekly reading 
of a Church newspaper or a worth-while book, but the 
fact remains that the rest of the time is given to 
learning most largely from teachers who are in the 
service of the world, the flesh, or the devil. The 
superficial and sensational magazine and novel liter- 
ature; New Thought books whose authors' appeal is 
too often addressed to the license-loving impulses of 
those who are already disposed to break away from 
the forms and institutions which create liberty by 
educating the will to self-restraint; the average mov- 
ing picture and cheap vaudeville show, the current 
maxims of business life born of the spirit of greed 
and covetousness, newspapers which applaud the pleas 
for selfish and self-centered nationalism, and the 
inane and purposeless gossip and chatter of the 
average pink tea or club house conversation : these 
and other such contributions to culture and education 
constitute at least a large portion of the learning to 
which the mind and soul of the people of our com- 
munities and even of our parishes are exposed during 
the major portion of life's waking hours. What is 
the result? It is life as we see it. It is inevitable. 
One does not speak as a pessimist. One is aware of 
many saving influences and welcomes certain hopeful 

43 



The Parish 

signs of a better day. One of the most encouraging 
symptoms is a growing spirit of noble discontent with 
conditions as they now exist. 

The Religious Education of the Young 
The Church Sunday school has worked under 
serious handicaps. It has been unable to secure the 
discipline which is demanded in the public schools. 
It has had to rely upon voluntary teaching and has 
not been able to require the attendance of teachers 
upon normal classes and has had to bring its teaching 
within the compass of about one-half hour a week. 
Then, too, in most instances it has been found almost 
impossible to secure the cooperation of parents in the 
effort to get thorough home preparation work done 
by the pupils. To those who, under these conditions, 
have patiently continued to serve as officers and teach- 
ers in our Church schools the Church and society owe 
a lasting debt of gratitude. Something additional, 
however, must be done to solve the problem. 

Week-day Religious Education 
Wherever the opportunity offers, the Church 
should take advantage of the opening to introduce 
week-day religious education in cooperation with the 
public schools, and every effort should be made to 
create the opportunity in every community. Where 
the opening is offered, it presents a high challenge to 
the Church, and there are certain definite things 
which the Church should consider when called to face 
the situation. 

(1) Adequate funds should be provided, and it 
should be realized that money could scarcely any- 

44 



The Teaching Mission of the Church 

where be used for a better and more vitally important 
cause. It has been found that this object is most 
appealing and that people stand ready and willing to 
give to it generous financial support. 

(2) A high-grade teacher should be secured. 
The teacher selected should, in ability and person- 
ality, rank equal with the best teachers in the public 
school. It will prove disastrous to the cause to have 
the children forced to note a striking contrast to the 
serious disadvantage of the Church. 

(3) An essential part of week-day religious edu- 
cation is the school of expression in which the boys 
and girls sew and make toys and scrap books, etc., 
for others. 

(4) The equipment should be adequate and the 
school-room made attractive by the use of pictures 
and appropriate decorations. 

(5) The Church should take under immediate 
consideration the preparation of courses of study, or 
the revision of now existing courses, made suitable 
for week-day religious schools. Attention should be 
given to the importance of judicious "labeling" and 
the wise use of terminology. It will be found that 
many children, not of the Church, will be attracted 
to the school, and it should be made possible to teach 
them essential truth as the Church holds it in trust 
without arousing suspicion and opposition by the use 
of terms which, until their content is understood and 
appreciated, would tend to arouse needless opposition. 
It is what is in the can and not the label on the can 
that nourishes life. Having grown accustomed to 
the content of teaching, there will cease to exist prej- 

45 



The Parish 

udice against the nomenclature which expresses it. 
Parents, however, with a background of erroneous 
conception would be led to withdraw their children 
from the school or withhold them from attendance 
if the text books contained expressions which aroused 
suspicion. What the Church needs to do is to give 
Catholic teaching, unaltered in its essential truth, but 
do it with the wisdom that perceives an opportunity 
and exercises discretion and common sense in mak- 
ing use of it. The need for definite teaching which 
will tend to link the life of youth with what is per- 
manent and essential in religion is imperative. The 
week-day school of religious education with its public 
school discipline and continuity of attendance will 
aiford a vital opportunity for constructive teaching 
that will build into the life of childhood strength of 
character, strength of conviction, and high concep- 
tions of true Churchmanship and citizenship. 

The Young People s Service of Worship 

The Prayer Book service of Morning Prayer was 
not compiled for the use of children. Parts of it 
came from monasteries where the life and laughter 
of childhood were unknown. It is a deadly process 
to subject the children of the Church, in mass, to this 
service as their introduction to the public worship. 
It has been often tried, but seldom with good success. 
The children grow restless and the grown folks 
impatient and critical. 

It has been found feasible to provide for the young 
people a regular service in the church edifice, preced- 
ing the meeting of the Church school, with a chil- 

46 



The Teaching Mission of the Church 

dreirs vested choir, a service suited to their stage of 
development, and an address appropriate to the ser- 
vice. The clergy are vested, the boys take the offering, 
and the congregation of scholars is trained to sing, to 
respond, to attention, and to reverence. Through this 
service the children are made familiar with the service 
of the Church and form the habit of Church atten- 
dance which follows them through after years. The 
service can be brought within from thirty to thirty- 
five minutes. On the third Sunday morning, it would 
be well to have the service of the Holy Communion. 
In a school of over 450 members, this plan has 
been tried for a year. At first there was serious 
question among the teachers as to the advisability 
of the experiment. At a final teachers' meeting with 
forty-eight officers and teachers present, the question 
of continuing the service was raised by the rector and 
the vote in favor of continuing it was enthusiastically 
unanimous. The General Convention might well 
appoint a commission to provide a special service, or 
services, for the use of the young people of the 
Church. 

The Extension of the Church Teaching System 

The organization of the parish in the group sys- 
tem plan outlined in the previous chapter furnishes 
an excellent opportunity of extending the teaching 
system of the Church. If the rector teaches the 
group normal class and prepares a syllabus for the use 
of the leaders, or secures adequate text books for 
their guidance, the teaching system becomes extended 
through the entire parish, provided the group officers 

47 



The Parish 

are faithful and constant in promoting attendance at 
the group classes. 

When a Part of the Parish Goes Off to School 

The Rev. Paul Micou, College Secretary of the 
Department of Religious Education, has pointed out 
in his book. The Church at Work in College and 
University, that the home parish has a vital respon- 
sibility for its students. He suggests that the rector 
should write to the rector of the Church in the col- 
lege town of the coming of one of his young people 
to the college. It is further suggested that the rector 
should talk with the student before leaving home, 
and keep personally in touch with him during the 
time when he is in college. Chapter XI of this book 
is worthy of the careful attention of every rector, and 
acquaintance with the whole subject, as outlined by 
Mr. Micou, will enable the rector to deal more ade- 
quately with his responsibility to those of his parish 
who go off to school. 

When it is considered that these are the years 
when youth changes an inherited belief for a personal 
faith, or for skepticism, the need for preserving this 
contact becomes still more compelling. These are the 
years, also, when decisions are formed as to life work, 
and when the call and claims of the sacred ministry 
should, through personal interviews or by correspon- 
dence, be presented to young men. The writer well 
recalls the words spoken by the rector of his boyhood : 
'Do not forget while you are planning your life work 
that the Lord has need of men for His ministry. Let 
Him help you decide what you will do." 

48 



The Teaching Mission of the Church 

The Family Altar 

The altar where the ancient patriarchs worshipped 
God and offered sacrifice is the earliest symbol of 
institutional religion. It was a family altar. The 
patriarch was the priest of his own household. The 
later development of religion into tabernacle, tem- 
ple, and synagogue worship and the subsequent estab- 
lishment of the Christian Church were not intended 
to supersede this obligation of the father of the family 
to be the priest of his own household, or to abolish 
the worship bond of union between the family, which 
is the unit of society, and our Father God. 

The demands of the modern world upon time 
and energy, the insistent emphasis upon materialism 
and pleasure seeking, resulting in blinding the vision 
of the soul, have perhaps done nowhere a more deadly 
and destructive work than in their overthrow of the 
family altar. The removal of worship from the 
home has, doubtless, been the most potent element in 
the reduction of candidates for the ministry. The 
weakening of sense of responsibility and loyalty to the 
Church, the menace to the family through the ravages 
of divorce, and the noticeable disposition of young 
married people to withdraw from regular attendance 
upon the services of the Church are other effects. 

There has been, of late, a disposition to shift 
the emphasis in education from the almost exclusive 
training of the intellect to the necessity for educat- 
ing the emotions and cultivating the desires in view 
of their controlling influence upon the will. It is 
a move in the right direction, but just at this point 
it is to be noted that an insidious effort is now being 

49 



The Parish 

made to lay for future character building an emo- 
tional and affectional foundation of slush and sand. 
Books from the modern press and pictures from the 
screen are constantly appealing to the sensual nature 
of men and women and urging the right to give 
nature a more unrestricted freedom. The foundations 
of home life are attacked by specious arguments which 
appeal to the selfish and self-indulgent desires of 
the physical nature, while it is contended that love 
and life would find a fuller joy in a larger freedom 
from conventional restraints. The claim is advanced 
that the desires and will should rebel against the 
chains which delimit and confine what are called 
the natural human instincts, and in one form or an- 
other a reign of free love is advocated in the name 
of freedom. Marriage is attacked as a restraint upon 
liberty, unless it be allowed that it be regarded as an 
institution founded upon the fickle fancies of those 
who enter into it, to whom should be given, it is 
claimed, perfect freedom to change partners if 
stronger attractions are subsequently offered. The 
right of children to be born is denied when their 
coming would limit the opportunities for social free- 
dom or personal pleasure. Thus a perverted emotion- 
alism, a slush programme of licensed sensuality, and 
a debased and selfish lower love life are proposed as 
the future foundations of character building and 
home life. 

The fact should be faced that strong counteract- 
ing influences must be put into operation to safe- 
guard the home and society. The rebuilding of the 
family altar would be the strongest and surest bul- 

50 



The Teaching Mission of the Church 

wark of defense against the menacing forces which 
are seeking to undermine the foundations. 

It will be found difficult to find a time in the 
modern home when "f amily prayers" can be held,, and 
it will, doubtless, require a certain measure of re- 
construction to provide a time when the whole family 
can be together for this purpose. The father has to 
hurry away to business and the children to school, 
and often the lady of the house has breakfast in bed. 
Difficulties also present themselves at the other end 
of the day. The difficulties are not, however, in- 
surmountable ; and if the Church can establish in the 
minds of her members the heartfelt desire to re- 
store the family altar then the family altar will be 
restored. The families where the family altar ha? 
survived give evidence that it can be restored. In 
some families the practice is followed of standing 
in the morning when "Grace" is said before break- 
fast, and also at the evening meal; and the family 
repeat together the Lord's Prayer and the collect. 
"Direct us, Lord*', or some other familiar prayer. 
The collect for the preceding Sunday might well be 
used during each week and the Saints' Day collects 
also as they occur throughout the year. The daily 
recognition by the family that God is our Father and 
that we are dependent upon Him for guidance and 
help in our daily life is needed, above all else, to safe- 
guard and preserve the nation. 

A nation-wide campaign for rebuilding the family 
altar, if successfully prosecuted, would solve manv 
other nation-wide problems ; and perhaps no "League" 
could be formed that could be devoted to a more 

51 



The Parish 

needful and worthy purpose than a national, a dioc- 
esan, and a parochial league for the restoration of 
the "family altar". It would do more than anything 
else to create a continuity of God consciousness; and. 
as life passed on from boyhood and girlhood into 
manhood and womanhood and family ties became 
severed, memory would enshrine the altar and its 
associations and create a sanctuary in the soul which 
would often be visited by forms and faces which 
had vanished from human sight into realms made 
real to consciousness from the daily kneeling together 
in the long-ago home around the Throne of Grace. 

Group Class Instruction 
The group organization affords, as has been 
pointed out, a most excellent plan for Church teach- 
ing extension work. In the appendix is printed a 
suggested list of subjects for group class instruction. 
The suggestion is further made that selected books 
should be read and discussed at group meetings. 
Many parishes could well afford to purchase twenty 
copies of a book to be given for two weeks to the 
membership of a group for reading and subsequent 
discussion, and then passed on to other groups in 
succession. A list of suggested books is given in the 
appendix. The list has been compiled by correspon- 
dence with a number of leaders of Church life and 

thought. m7 ^ 7 _ „ 

The Church Newspaper 

Few homes are without a daily newspaper and 

comparatively few take a weekly Church paper. 

There is no better monthly review than the Spirit 

of Missions. The illustrations alone are worth more 

52 



The Teaching Mission of the Church 

than the annual subscription. Those who have in- 
vested in the Xation-wide Campaign would do well 
to invest further in the Spirit of Missions. It has 
recently been decided to enlarge the scope of its 
purview and make it the official magazine of all three 
departments of the Presiding Bishop and Council. 
It will thus report on the work being done in the 
field of Eeligious Education and Christian Social 
Service, as well as in the field of Missions and Church 
Extension, which seek, as has been said, to express 
the One Mission of the Church. It is to be expected 
that contributors to the Campaign will naturally turn 
to this monthly magazine to follow the progress of 
the work which they are helping to support and for 
which they have been taught to pray. In the appen- 
dix a list is given of the leading Church papers with 
price quotations, and the suggestion is made that 
every Church family establish this point of contact 
between the home and the General Church. 

The writer remembers taking dinner on one oc- 
casion with a bishop of the Church who was the proud 
possessor of twelve children and of one Church news- 
paper. During the dinner a contention arose as to 
which one should first have access to the Southern 
Churchman. The discussion finally resulted in an 
authoritative pronouncement of precedence in the 
coveted privilege. Since that Sunday, four of the 
family have entered the ministry of the Church and 
one the episcopate ; which, while perhaps not entirely 
due to the Church newspaper, is an interesting fact 
to which the information and inspiration of the paper 
doubtless made contribution. 

53 



The Parish 



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"This is My 

Body". 

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dwell in us and 

we in Him." 

Proper preface 

for Christmas. 


"Made there by 
His one oblation 

of Himself once 
offered a full, 
perfect, and suffi- 
cient sacrifice," 
etc. 


S 


"By the mystery 
of Thy Holy In- 
carnation," 

etc., 
"Good Lord, de- 
liver us." 


"By Thy Fasting 
and Temptation ; 
by Thine Agony 
a nil B loo d y 

Sweat; by Thy 
Cross mid Pus 
slon ; by Thy 
precious Death 
nnd Burial . . . 
"Good Lord, de- 
liver us." 


3 
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5 


"Thine adorable, 
true, and only 
Son . . . 
"Thou art the 
King of Glory, 
o Christ. • . • 
When Thou took- 
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deliver man. 
T boil didst 
humble Thyself 
to be born of a 
Virgin." 


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Advent- 
preparation. 

Christmas 

Epiphany 
Expression. 


Preparation. 
Septuageslma to 
Ash Wednesday. 

LENT 

Good Friday 


a 

°§ 
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"I believe in one 
God the Father 
Almighty, maker 
of heaven and 
earth, and of all 
things", etc. . . . 
"And In one Lord 
J e s u s Christ 
. . ." through 
the words, "and 
was made man". 


"And was cruel- 
lied also for us 
tinder Pontius 
Pilate; lie suf 
lered mid was 
buried". 


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The 
Incarnation 

Baptimn 

The mobiliza- 
tion of the 
Body or Army 
Of Christ. 


II 

Sacrifice 

The Training of 
I tody or Army 
mobilized. 



54 



The Teaching Mission of the Church 



"We bless Thy 
holy name for all 
Thy servants de- 
parted." 

"Exalt us to ev- 
erlasting life." 
Proper prefaces 
for Easter and 
Ascension Day. 


Proper preface 
for Whitsunday. 
"That we may do 
all such good 
works as Thou 
hast prepared for 
us to walk in." 


"By Thy glorious 
Resurrection and 
Ascension . . . 
"Good Lord, de- 
liver us." 


"By the coming 
of the Holy 
Ghost . . . 
"We beseech 
Thee to rule and 
govern Thy Holy 
Church universal 


"Thou didst open 
the Kingdom of 
Heaven to all be- 
lievers. . . . 
"Make them to 
be numbered with 
Thy saints in 
glory. 

"Thou sittest at 
the right hand 
of God in glory" 


"T h e glorious 
company of the 
Apostles praise 
Thee. 

"The holy Church 
throughout all 
the world doth 
acknowle dge 
Thee; "The 
Father . . . Son 
. . . and Holy 
Ghost". 


Preparation, Lent 
and Easter-Eve. 

Easter 

Ascension 

Day 

Sundays after 
Easter and As- 
cension. 


Whitsunday 

Expression, Sun- 
days after Trin- 
ity. 


"And the third 
day He rose . . . 
ascended into 
heaven, and sit- 
teth on the right 
hand of the 
Father : And He 
shall come again 
. . . to judge. 
. . . And I look 
for the resurrec- 
tion of the dead : 
and the life of 
the world to 
come." 


"And I believe in 
the Holy Ghost, 
the Lord and 
Giver of life . . . 
and I believe one 
Catholic and 
Apostolic Church 
. . . and I ac- 
knowledge one 
Baptism for the 
remission of 
sins". 


Ill 

Eternal Life 

Divine equipment 
and Leadership 
of Body or 
Army mobil- 
ized. 


The Mission 
of the 
Church 

To carry on. 



55 



The Parish 

Key To Diagram 

The Four Great Fundamentals of divine revelation 
and of Church teaching are: 

( 1 ) The Incarnation. 

(2) The Divine Sacrifice. 

(3) The Revelation of Eternal Life. 

(4) The Mission of the Church as the Body of Christ. 

To these four fundamentals the Nicene Creed bears 
witness and is, therefore, a complete and sufficient statement 
of Christian Faith. 

The Christian year is devoted to setting forth and 
inculcating these fundamental truths, each great truth 
being commemorated by an outstanding day in the Chris- 
tian year, each of these days being preceded by a season of 
preparation and followed by a season of contemplation; 
as, for example, Christmas, which bears perennial witness 
to the Divine Incarnation, is preceded by the Advent 
Season, which seeks to prepare the Church for the Christ- 
mas message, and is followed by the Sundays after Christ- 
mas and the Epiphany Season, which call upon life to give 
expression to the Truth received. 

The last three columns in the chart show how these 
four great fundamental truths inspire the worship of the 
Church in Te Deum, Litany, and Eucharist. The reader 
would do well to note also how these four fundamental 
truths inspire and find expression in the whole of the litur- 
gical worship of the Church. 

B. Teaching the Fundamentals 

The individual Churchman would do well to re- 
member that the Church is a wise and experienced 
teacher of truth. She has passed through many ex- 
periences. Before a word of the New Testament was 
written, she was the constant companion and friend 
of Jesus of Nazareth. She listened to His teachings, 

56 



The Teaching Mission of the Church 

witnessed His miracles. His temptations, and His 
victories; she followed Him to the Mount where He 
was transfigured, went with Him as a witness into 
Gethsemane, stood "afar off'"" as they crucified Him, 
walked with Him after His resurrection, and heard 
Him speak "of the things concerning the Kingdom 
of God". She stood with Him upon the Mount of 
Ascension and received His blessing and His final 
commission. "Go teach."'" He said, but He also said. 
"I will teach you. 77 I will be your authority. My 
truth-teaching and life-giving Spirit will be given 
to you, and "He will guide you into all truth. 77 The 
Churchman should remember that all along the way 
from ancient Pentecost until to-day He, "The Spirit 
of Truth 77 , has been a living, guiding, and inspiring 
Presence in the Church; that the truth she holds 
has been sifted out and considered by the great Ecu- 
menical Councils : that it has met and contended with 
the great philosophies of the ages, and has helped 
to interpret and make real the truth that is in 
them, and thrown a guiding light upon the path 
of human thought; that the Church, though often 
the misguided adversary to scientific investigation, 
has finally yielded to the truly scientific spirit, 
has come to welcome the investigation of all reverent 
science, and has reached the conviction that there can 
be no conflict between true science and true theology. 
The Churchman should realize that the truth held 
by the Church Corporate is a thousand times more apt 
to be true than the Xew Thought cults of our modern 
day, and that it is better balanced than the systems 
of religion which are currently taught, divorced from 

57 



The Parish 

their continuity and their place in what we might 
call the family of truth. 

It would require a book on theology, or indeed 
several books, to set forth these fundamental truths 
in their completeness. Such books are available and 
should be better known than they are by the average 
American Churchman. Attention is here only called 
to the fact that the Churchman has, and should hold 
to, this heritage, and that he holds most closely to 
it who most completely hands it on to others. The 
diagram given shows the truths that the Church 
holds to be fundamental, in their relation to the faith 
and worship of the Church. A few notes are appended 
in explanation. The diagram, as an outline of in- 
struction, has been used in conducting a class on 
Christian Fundamentals at one of the Summer 
Schools for Church Workers. It is given with the 
hope that it may be of use to other teachers in Church 
schools or group classes, and with the further hope 
that it may help fix in the minds of Churchmen the 
richness of their heritage, and its relation not alone 
to their faith and worship but to their vocation as 
character builders also. 

The four fundamental truths of revealed religion 
and of Church teaching given in the diagram are the 
four fundamentals of the Christian faith, as contained 
in the Nicene Creed. 

The Incarnation 

The doctrine of the Incarnation is the Church's 
expression of her faith in God. It should be noted 
that the section of the Creed which expresses our faith 

58 



The Teaching Mission of the Church 

in God begins with the words. "I believe in God", and 
extends through the words, "'and was made man." 
This is the first fundamental and most distinctive 
truth of the Christian religion. It differentiates 
Christianity from the ethnic religions and from all 
un-Christian systems. It is the declaration of the fact 
that Christ was not simply the incarnation of the Gos- 
pel which He taught, but of God — being, as the Creed 
expresses it. "of one substance with the Father*, 
"God of God and Light of Light"'. Being the same 
yesterday, to-day, and forever, we are taught that He 
is still God and man. Thus our nature and life and 
destiny are inseparably united with God, and God 
is inseparably united with man, sharing his pain and 
participating in his sorrow and grief and lifting 
him through struggle into the fellowship of the divine 
life. The Incarnation is the revelation of God's 
self-giving and self-revealing nature, and the revela- 
tion is through our nature — and, therefore, in terms 
that we can understand. But it is not yet complete 
and will not be until the Father is known by and 
revealed through all His children. This process of 
continued revelation is committed to the Church, 
which is a divinely constituted and divinely commis- 
sioned Body in which Christ continues to incarnate 
Himself, and which is. therefore, called in scripture 
the "'Body of Christ"'*. Of this Body we who have 
been baptized into His nature are members. Out of 
this fact grows our responsibility and from it flows 
our life and conquering power. "We are His wit- 
nesses ; His revealers. The ^Mission of the Church 
is His Mission. TVe are His Missioners. The Gos- 

59 



The Parish 

pels give us the record of what Jesus "began to do 
and teach until the day in which He was taken up". 
His Body, the Church, has been continuing the 
history of His life, for as Prophet, Priest, and King, 
and Head of His Church, His life and leadership 
have been continuous. Each generation writes a new 
chapter in the history of the life of Christ, and to 
the chapter now being written every member of Hi? 
Body is called to make contribution. The Gospel of 
the Incarnation which is most read and best under- 
stood of men is the Gospel according to us. "Ye 
are my witnesses." 

The chart indicates how the fundamentals are 
the basis of the faith of the Church expressed in the 
Creed, and of the worship of the Church voiced in the 
Litany and Te Deum. The service of the Holy Com- 
munion is a continuous expression and application 
of these four fundamental truths. There is not 
space in the diagram to indicate this fact in full, 
which is self-evident throughout the Communion Ser- 
vice. The teacher of the fundamental truths should 
analyze the Communion Service and point out how 
the Incarnation, the doctrine of sacrifice, the gift 
and presence of eternal life, and the Mission of the 
Church to "do all such good works as Thou hast 
prepared for us to walk in" run like golden threads 
through the whole Eucharistic Service of the Church. 



60 



The Teaching Mission of the Church 

Sacrifice 

As the Incarnation is God's continuous call for 
the * mobilization of humanity into the Body of 
Christ, which is often described in the Bible as an 
army, so the second fundamental, "Sacrifice", is the 
Training Camp for the mobilized army. Into it 
Christ entered and subjected Himself to continuous 
discipline; and learned obedience through the things 
which He suffered. The Cross has been the symbol 
of His life through all eternity. He has been "the 
Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the 
world". He is still. And as such we shall behold 
Him at the last. 

The Cross is the symbol of our most holy religion. 
Its message has ever been the hardest Gospel message 
for man to receive. It challenges and develops the 
faith of the Church. It points to the only way which 
God has opened into the endless vistas of eternal life. 
St. Paul is constantly voicing the appeal to the 
Church to live through the experiences of Christ, 
and the Christ Himself said, "If any man will be 
My disciple, let him deny himself and take up 
his cross daily and follow Me." It is only as we 
"are crucified with Him" that we are raised into the 
fellowship of His risen and ascended life. As we 
lose our life in service, we find it in the fulness of 
salvation. 



* The writer is aware of the fact that this comparison was 
used in the outline of the Christian Tear in Chapter 1. The 
Creed is the faith expression of the Church, based on the teach- 
ing given in the Christian Tear. The repetition is for the 
purpose of reenforcement of the thought taught by the Church 
in Creed, in Christian Year, in Te Deum, Litany, and Eucharist. 

61 



The Parish 

Eternal Life Now and Hereafter 

The third fundamental, the revelation of "Eter- 
nal Life", is the divine panoply and equipment for 
the mobilized and disciplined army of Christ. We 
do not have to die to reach and win eternal life, for 
"God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life 
is in His Son, and He that hath the Son of God 
hath eternal life" now. It is the power in which we 
conquer temptations, overcome obstacles, win the vic- 
tory, and triumph over death. "There is no death; 
what seems so is but transition." 

The Holy Spirit and the Mission of the Church 

The fourth fundamental is the revealed "Mission 
of the Church". The Body, or Army, mobilized, 
trained, and equipped, must "carry on". This is the 
"expression" * side of our faith. We cannot know 
truth until we live it and give it to others. In giv- 
ing the revelation to others the light of revelation 
glows more brightly in the self-giving life. The 
Glory of God Himself is revealed in His continual 
and bounteous self-giving. This is the philosophy 
of the divine life. A denial of faith in the Mission 
of the Church is a confession of ignorance as to 
the very nature of God Himself. When the Christ 
said, "Go ye", in giving His commission to His 
Church, He was pointing not alone to the path of 
duty but to the way of life for the souls of men, for 

* Modern pedagogy reiterates the maxim : "Every im- 
pression demands an expression," which is but a restatement 
of the teaching of Jesus : "Not every one that saith ... but 
he that doeth the will of My Father shall enter into the King- 
dom of Heaven." 

62 



The Teaching Mission of the Church 

knowledge of God comes ever through obedience and 
through the expression of His life incarnate in His 
Body, of which we are members. 

C. The Great Essentials 

As the living water from the hidden mountain 
sources makes and uses channels through which to 
flow as it fulfils its mission in its journey back to the 
sea, even so the Divine Life has chosen and makes 
use of channels by which it communicates itself to 
man. These essential channels are all, like the In- 
carnation itself, divinely appointed means for re- 
vealing and imparting the Life of God to the children 
of God that they may have life more abundantly. 
Being divinely ordained, they are generally necessary 
to human salvation, for salvation is the divine process 
of enabling man to become all that God purposes that 
he should be. These great essentials of the Christian 
religion are, therefore, of vital concern to human life 
and cannot be neglected without jeopardizing the 
life of the soul. Their rightful use unites the life 
of man with the Life of God and imparts to him the 
richness of his inheritance revealed and pledged 
through the Divine Incarnation, the Divine Sacrifice, 
the Divine Gift of Eternal Life, and the divine and 
human act by which man is incorporated and sus- 
tained, in the Church, which is the Body of Christ. 

Holy Baptism 

The divinely instituted means through which hu- 
man life is incorporated into the Body of Christ is 

63 



The Parish 

the sacrament of Holy Baptism. The teaching of 
the Church is that baptism is the beginning of a con- 
tinuous process which brings and keeps the life of 
man in contact and correspondence with the vital and 
divine environment of the soul. It is into the very 
life and nature of Christ, the divine and ever-living 
Son of God, that human life is baptized. The soul 
thus enters into its inheritance. In the service the 
will of the Father, His Xew Testament, is read to 
the child in the presence of witnesses and sponsors. 
The child is made a party to a covenant and is sealed, 
as the covenant is sealed, with the Sign of the Cross. 
in token that it will share in and express the corporate 
life of the Church which is divinely imparted to that 
Body of which the person baptized is now made a 
member. 

The sponsors are charged to see that the channels 
of communication between God and the soul of the 
child are kept open and that the child be taught 
to believe, and to obey, and then be brought to the 
bishop to be confirmed in the holy faith. In con- 
firmation a developed and personal faith is divinely 
blessed and strengthened; and. because the obliga- 
tions of renunciation, of faith and obedience, become 
more intimately personal, a more intimate and per- 
sonal contact with the Source of life and power is 
offered to the child of God. The door is opened to 
the Sacrament of Sustentation. The soul is admitted 
into fellowship with Christ through the sacred mys* 
tery of His Life imparted to His Body, the Church, 
through the Communion of His Body and Blood. 

The sacred obligation of sponsors in baptism is 

64 



The Teaching Mission of the Church 

too often lightly regarded or entirely forgotten. If 
all who have become sponsors and if all who have 
come as parents with children to the Font were mind- 
ful of their trust, the whole life of the Church would 
be enriched and empowered. They would be mindful 
of the compelling power of example and would see 
that the standards of loyalty were maintained. As 
it now is, every parish priest is aware of the fact 
that the insurmountable handicap which he faces in 
his endeavor to inculcate loyalty in the lives of the 
younger members of the Church and in the newly 
confirmed lies in the laxness and disloyalty of older 
people to their covenanted obligations. The young 
look about them and, being keenly observant, copy 
the example set them by parents, sponsors, and others 
whom the young regard as representative of what a 
Churchman is expected to do in fulfilment of con- 
firmation vows and other Church obligations and 
privileges. No lesson taught from pulpit, in con- 
firmation class, or in the Church school can possibly 
overcome this baneful influence of a disloyal example 
set before the younger members of Christ's Holy 
Church. If, when the question arose (and it forms 
the evil habit of arising), "Shall I go to church to- 
day?" the Churchman would decide it, not in the 
light of personal impulse or desire but in the light of 
his responsibility as a witness to his faith and in 
view of his responsibility to set an example to the 
young of loyalty to Christ and His Church, there 
would soon come a marked improvement in the wit- 
ness-bearing power of the whole Church. The priest- 
hood cannot teach the right way and the people, by 

65 



The Parish 

their example, the wrong way, with the expectation 
that the young will follow the teaching of the priest 
rather than the example of the grown people, espec- 
ially the example of negligent parents and sponsors. 

The Holy Communion 

The Approach 

Once in the long ago, centuries longer than most 
of us imagine, the earth was covered for the first 
time with the myriad-hued beauty of the flowers and 
the air was filled with their fragrance. Had they 
bloomed for one brief summer and then gone away 
forever, and had there been left as a memorial of 
them naught save a book on botany and bottled es- 
sence of their perfume, could we have ever known the 
loveliness of the flowers or the sweetness of their 
fragrance? But God did not make the flowers to 
die and to be made known to future ages in that 
way. He ordained that they should have life in them- 
selves and, as the centuries come and go, at each 
glad spring time He sends the flowers themselves, 
that we may see and know their loveliness and bend 
over them and breathe into our lives the sweetness 
of their fragrance. 

He gives continuity and perennial life to the 
flowers and speaks through them of the hidden beauty 
of invisible color wrapped in the mystic wonder of 
the sunbeams which enter into their life, making 
the flowers witnesses of the hidden glory of light; 
so that the violet tells us of the purple sunlight's 
ray, the rose of its crimson color, while the sunflower 
speaks of the hidden golden glow which lies latent in 

66 



The Teaching Mission of the Church 

a beam of light. If thus, through the centuries, 
God brings to us the continuity of the revelation of 
the sunshine glory through the loveliness of the liv- 
ing flowers, what should we expect as to the method 
through which He would give the revelation of Him- 
self? Would we expect to find it in a book alone? 
Would we look for an Incarnate revelation that would 
last upon earth for a few brief years and then van- 
ish, leaving the Gospel record alone as the witness 
of the altogether loveliness, of the matchless beauty, 
of the perfect life and glory of the Incarnate One? 
No ! We would expect Him who made the flowers to 
live through the centuries, and who sends them to us 
in the beauty of perennial loveliness, to give continu- 
ity also to the revelation of the Divine Life and Love. 
Yet how few there are who live in the glow and 
gladness of His continuous revelation of Himself 
with the appreciation which is manifested towards the 
flowers and other revelations of nature. We who 
would not turn to books on botany to know the beauty 
of flowers, but go to revel in the glory of their color 
in the gardens and fields of nature, too often turn 
to the Bible as the almost exclusive revelation of the 
living and ever present God. He does not live in 
books or creeds which bear witness to Him and record 
His acts of goodness to the children of men. He 
comes to us through living channels of divine ap- 
pointment, and when He finds human life in an atti- 
tude of receptivity He enters in and incarnates Him- 
self there. Then, as the flowers tell us of the myriad 
colors enfolded in a white ray of light, giving through 
their color the revelation of the sunshine enfolded 

67 



The Parish 

in them, so we also are called to be the witnesses of 
the Incarnate Christ. 

In the sacred service of which we are about to 
speak, in ways wonderful and mystical the Living 
Christ incarnates His glorified human and divine 
life in the life of His Body, the Church. Having 
imparted His Living Presence, He bids us remember 
that we are to Him as the flowers are to the sunshine. 
Many who do not read the Bible record of His revela- 
tion will read the witness which human life gives of 
the Divine Presence, and, having been impressed by 
the revelation of God embodied and expressed through 
the human, will turn to the Book as men turn from 
flower gardens to books on botany. This approach 
has been chosen to the consideration of the Euchar- 
ist, because it is suggestive of the continuity of rev- 
elation through life. God's thought and life com- 
municated through the Holy Communion does not 
invite a logical but rather the biological approach 
to its apprehension. The supreme mysteries of life 
call rather for the exercise of reverence and faith 
and for an atmosphere which transcends the formal 
processes of syllogistic reasoning. 

The Scripture Witness 

The reader is asked to note the two explicit state- 
ments that are made in scripture and quoted here, 
relative to the "Body of Christ". 
St. Matthew 26:26 ") 

St. Mark 14:22 ')■ "THIS IS MY BODY." 
St. Luke 22 : 19 J 

t n° T ' ll'nt \ "YE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST." 

I Cor. 12:27 j 

68 



The Teaching Mission of the Church 

Phil. 3:21 -The Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, 

shall change our vile body, that- it 
may be fashioned like unto his glor- 
ious body,, according to the working 
whereby he is able even to subdue 
all things unto himself." 

St. John 15:5 "I am the vine,, ye are the branches." 

St. John 6:53-56 "Then Jesus said unto them. Verily, 

verily I say unto you. Except ye eat 
the flesh of the Son of man. and 
drink his blood, ye have no life in 
you. 

"Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh 
my blood, hath eternal life: and I 
will raise him up at the last day. 
"For my flesh is meat indeed, and my 
blood is drink indeed. 
•"He that i iteth my flesh and drinketh 
my blood, dwelleth in me. and I in 
him," 

Col. 1:24 "Fill up that which is behind of the 

afflictions of Christ in my flesh for 
his body's sake, which is the church." 
(Read also verses 25 and 26. 

St. John 12:32 "And I. if I be lifted up from the 

earth, will draw all men unto me." 

I Cor. 11:26 ""For as often as ye eat this bread. 

and drink this cup. ye do shew the 
Lord's death till he come.'-* 

The Holy Mystery 

There is no teaching office of the Church more 
potent than the Holy Communion, or so personal. 
In this act of divine worship the Divine Teacher im- 
parts to His Body, the Church, all fundamental truth. 
because He imparts Himself, who is the Truth to 
which the Catholic Creeds bear witness. Truth can 

69 



The Parish 

never be fully known until it is received into life and 
becomes a part of life's experience. Discourses and 
treatises on life cannot create life, nor can they im- 
part it. It must be communicated and lived to be 
experienced and known. This is why Christ did not 
confine His teaching to the inspiration of a Book, but 
chose the Incarnation method of self-revelation and 
continues to use this method of communicating 
Truth. He organized a living body for His contin- 
uous and progressive incarnation, that our life might 
be the witness of His life. Then, in order that we 
might have His life to witness to, through our life, 
He communicates Himself to His Body, the Church. 

The power of words to portray the mystic wonder 
of this service is almost impotent. Divine truth is 
transcendent. All that is witnessed to in the Catholic 
Creeds and taught in Advent, at Christmas, in Lent, 
on Good Friday, Easter, Ascension Day, Whitsunday, 
and Trinity Sunday is communicated here. These 
are witnesses and summaries of fundamental truth: 
but He who said, "This is my Body", is Himself 
the Fundamental, Living, and Incarnate Truth. 
Take Me, He says, into your life that I may illumine 
it, glorify it, transfigure it, and shine through it to 
be the Light of the World. Thus the Holy Com- 
munion imparts the Living Truth, to which the 
Christian year bears witness, to the living Church 
for the creation of Christian life and character; to 
enable us to be living witnesses to the Christ, who 
incarnates Himself in His Body, the Church. 

It is not an organization that is called to come 
to the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, 

70 



The Teaching Mission of the Church 

but an organism, the Corporate Body of Christ. We 
come making symbolic gifts. 

( 1 ) The congregation offers and presents through 
the priest the elements of bread and wine for the 
consecration. 

(2) The congregation offers and presents through 
the priest the offertory which represents the stored-up 
personality of the worshippers; and this alone, to- 
gether with the Book which contains the compiled 
faith and devotion of the Church and the Word of 
God, and the Elements to be consecrated, is allowed 
by the Law of the Church to be placed on the altar. 

(3) Then the "Body of Christ" says, "Here we 
offer and present unto Thee, Lord, ourselves, our 
«ouls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living 
sacrifice unto Thee/"' 

This, then, is our offering and oblation. 

The Christ offers Himself in the real and glori- 
fied fulness of His Divine and human Presence. The 
glorified and ascended Body of Christ is communicated 
to His militant, pilgrim, and witness-giving Body. 
Thus the Incarnation is extended. The real and 
eternally glorious cr Body of Christ", spoken of at the 
altar, is communicated to the real and militant "Body 
of Christ' 7 kneeling at the altar rail, thus extending 
His Incarnation and also extending the Divine Sac- 
rifice. If the Churchman will accept by faith these 
two statements of our most holy faith and make them 
both real in his own life, the teaching power and 
the vital call of the Holy Communion will be made 
known to him. There are many who insist upon the 
reality of the words spoken at the altar when the 

71 



The Parish 

priest says, "This is my Body", and there are many 
others who insist that the words, "The Church is 
His Body", are not a figure of speech but the ex- 
pression of a reality also. Why not take both asser- 
tions as being equally real? They represent the 
"Body of Christ" in different stages of manifestation, 
but they are both words of divine revelation and are, 
therefore, both words of reality and truth. The Holy 
Communion was given that the two realities might be 
made one. The Communion does not alter or change 
the glorified "Body of Christ". It does seek to 
alter and change the militant and pilgrim "Body of 
Christ". It seeks to make an at-one-ment between the 
two. He who believes the Nicene Creedal state- 
ment of the Divine Incarnation in the sinful nature 
of man should find this thought of the continued 
and real incarnation, through communion, a thought 
full of real significance and truth, for thus "He who 
for us men and for our salvation came down from 
Heaven and was incarnate" continues to come down 
to become real flesh and blood, actually and visibly 
present in the world in and through His Body, the 
Church. The vine does not cease to be the vine 
when its life passes into the branches "that they 
may bring forth more fruit", nor does His body 
cease to be "His Body" when it becomes embodied 
in the living organism, the Church, which is His 
continuous Body, called and thus empowered to make 
His Incarnation and sacrifice continuously real and 
visible to the life of the world. Thus He who is 
unchangeably incarnate in His glorified humanity 
becomes continuously and progressively incarnate in 

72 



The Teaching Mission of the Church 

His pilgrim Body, which is thus destined to be 
also "a glorious Body without spot or wrinkle or any 
such thing". 

There is a natural disposition of mind and rever- 
ence to associate the Presence of Christ with the altar 
covered with pure linem illumined and cross crowned. 
The natural dis230sition to adoration tends to fix 
and exclusively localize Him there. The thought of 
His coming down into "His Body"'" kneeling at the 
altar rail, and entering into that Body, at first seems 
anti-climactic. Our thought and faith are challenged, 
as was the thought of Xeo-Platonic philosophy. This 
philosophy could not bring itself to accept the idea 
of a personal incarnation of God in human nature. 
It said. An idea, a thought, can become incarnate, but 
God Himself could not. for human nature is sinful 
and the sinless Christ could not assume it. This 
erroneous conception of applied Xeo-Platonic phi- 
losophy was responsible for creating more than one 
heresy in the Christian Church, and persists in its 
subtle hold upon human thought. The Christian 
revelation, to the contrary, is that Christ, without 
sin. did and does dwell in sin-cursed human nature 
and sinlessly incarnates Himself in it that He may 
"make us sons of God"' and "'exalt us unto the same 
place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before"". 
A: first — when the thought is presented of Christ's 
Body passing in sacramental mystery from the pure 
whiteness of the altar into the mottled and sin-stained 
life of humanity at the altar rail — at first one shrinks 
back as though one was losing something, as though 
there was a lowering of the idea and concept of 

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The Parish 

Christ's Exalted Presence. A certain fear of a van- 
ishing Christ possesses the thought. It seems at first 
a lowering of that which inspired adoration, for we, 
with our consciousness of sin and unworthiness, are 
kneeling at the altar rail. Think further into a 
still deeper faith and adoration. What takes place 
is the revelation of Christ's continuous condescen- 
sion, of His continuous coming down from the throne 
to the manger. This is the glory of Divine Love. 
It is continuously self -giving, self-incarnating. This 
further thought should, therefore, increase rather 
than detract from the feeling of awe and adoration 
with which we approach Him who condescends to 
approach and enter into us that we may become the 
extended Body of His divine and continuous con- 
descension, and incarnation, and revelation. 

A comparison may help to the fuller realization 
of this truth. Electricity is enfolded and embodied 
in visible matter. When matter is thrown into the 
crucible and purified, electricity is released and sub- 
limated and passes into realms of invisibility, from 
which it returns to pulse through the wires which 
carry the telegraph and telephone message, or comes 
in the power current that runs the car or illumines 
the home. Even so, in ways more vital and more 
mystical, the Christ, who was visibly and perfectly 
incarnate, passed through crucifixion into the sub- 
limated and glorified life of His resurrected and 
ascended Body, in which He returns in Holy Sac- 
rament and by other channels of His choosing and 
appointment, to quicken and empower His Body, 
the Church, to transmit through this Body of His 

74 



The Teaching Mission of the Church 

continuous incarnation the messages of His revela- 
tion and to pulse His power through His visible 
human Body that it may do His will and be His 
witness. Therefore the communicant should, with 
a vision of the joy which is set before him also, say. 
as we are called to say in the service of the Holy 
Communion, "Here we offer and present unto Thee, 

Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reason- 
able, holy, and living sacrifice unto Thee — that we 
may worthily receive the most precious Body and 
Blood of Thy Son Jesus Christ — and be made one 
body with Him, that He may dwell in us, and we in 
Him." Then when "His Body" is communicated to 
His Body, the Church, His Church is forthwith sent, 
or rather led, by Him whither He Himself led the 
first fruits of our humanity, in which He became 
incarnate that, His incarnation being continuous. His 
sacrifice and service may be continuous also. 

The thought which is here presented is not gen- 
erally perceived and its challenge to the Church is, 
therefore, not generally appreciated. It is, however, 
of vital concern that it should be. The act of gazing 
upon the mysteries present on the altar with an in- 
ward awe and with adoration is not a complete and 
sufficient act of worship in the Holy Eucharist, The 
act of reception does not complete the service or 
begin to measure the Churchman's responsibility. 
Where Christ communicates His Glorified Body to 
His militant Body, the Church, He says, "And I, if 

1 be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." Take 
up your cross and follow Me. Fill up, through 
the sacrifice of My pilgrim Body, that which was 

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The Parish 

extensively lacking in My perfect and complete sacri- 
fice offered upon Calvary *. Just what does He 
mean? Why, He means just what He says. He 
means that on Calvary the first fruits, the earnest of 
our humanity, were lifted in perfect and complete 
self-giving on the cross into the glory of an endless 
life; but He means also that His whole Body must 
die with Him that it may also live with Him. Now, 
if we accustom ourselves to think of the Church as 
the real and true Body of Christ for the extension 
of His incarnation, so that the "first fruits" may 
be extended to embrace God's whole harvest field of 
human life, then the thought of the continuous 
living sacrifice constantly made, through the real and 
true offering of His Body, the Church, will become 
real to us also. His Body, the Church, cannot, how- 
ever, make this continuous oblation and sacrifice of 
itself unless He who took bread and brake it and gave 
it to them saying, "This is my Body", communicates 
His glorified Body to His militant, pilgrim Body, the 
Church, and Himself leads it into Gethsemane and 
up to Calvary. 

He cannot, however, sacrifice His pilgrim Body 
without the consent of its own will. He, there- 
fore, who passed into Gethsemane and there won 
the victory of Calvary as He prayed, fr N~ot my will, 
but thine, be done," calls His Church to follow 
Him. In our Gethsemanes He stands with us. He 
says again, "If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto 
me." You are My Body, He says to His Church, but 

* Col. 1 : 24. 

76 



The Teaching Mission of the Church 

you have a will that must be crucified before My 
Body can be lifted up. "Will you will My will and 
offer yourselves as I offered Myself? If so. then 
in My power, communicated to you, lift My Church, 
which is My Body, to the cross. Make My sacrifice a 
living, continuous, and compelling sacrifice, and draw 
men unto Me through self-giving made in the power 
of My communicated life to My continuous Body, 
the Church. In this sense we dare use the word 
and say. He calls us to •'•transubstantiate''', to con- 
vert His Body, communicated into the very flesh and 
blood of His living Body, the Church, that *'\His 
Body"' may turn from the altar rail to be lifted up in 
continued sacrifice in factories, in homes, among the 
poor, and in every place, and His life outpoured 
for the redemption of the world. Thus by every cross 
that is lifted up upon which His Body, the Church, 
is '•'crucified with Christ", will men be drawn unto 
Him. To-day as of old the world cries, '''Come down 
from the Cross*', but to-day He who continued to 
hang there calls to His Body, the Church, to follow 
Him through crucifixion into the fulness of life 
eternal. 

This is the high calling of God in Christ Jesus 
voiced in every service of the Holy Communion. It 
is a sacred Eucharist because He who there calls His 
Body to continuous self-giving, and to death with 
Him upon the Cross, continues there to impart His 
glorified Body to His Body in its pilgrimage that 
it may be empowered to give the continuous revela- 
tion of His Presence and of His continuous will to 
sacrifice. The continuous living sacrifice is made 

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The Parish 

possible by the continuous incarnation. The cross on 
the altar; the glorified Christ present in His Body 
there and then communicated to His Body at the 
altar rail, and after that the crosses set up along the 
way of life's pilgrimage, point and lead the way to the 
victory that overcometh the world. 

Holy Orders 

If the reader has become imbued with the con- 
sciousness that the Church is the living Body of the 
Christ whose Presence is thus made continuous and 
whose life is thus continuously communicated, then 
the truth which the Church holds and teaches relative 
to Holy Orders will be not only easy to accept but 
will appear, as it is, of necessary consequence. The 
first truth relative to Holy Orders is that the ministry 
of the Church is of divine appointment. As life and 
truth come down from above, so also must come the 
authority by which they are communicated to and 
covenanted with man. Therefore, we take not the 
office and orders of the Holy Ministry upon ourselves, 
but are called and chosen and set apart under the 
authority vested by Christ in His Church, and be- 
come, as the scriptures say, the ambassadors of Christ. 
This fact is clearly stated in the Ordinal which pre- 
faces the Services of Ordination and is found on page 
509 of the Book of Common Prayer and should not 
only be read by but known by every Churchman. 
It should also be remembered that for over half a 
century before any book of the Xew Testament had 
been written the ministry was in existence and was 
engaged in communicating to the Body of Christ the 

78 



The Teaching Mission of the Church 

things which, after His resurrection, He taught "con- 
cerning the Kingdom of God". 

By reason of the fact that the Church, as the 
Body of Christ, is called to offer itself continuously 
that through His Body He may continue to be lifted 
up, it was divinely ordained that congregations of 
Christian people, as well as ordered bishops, should 
take part in setting men aside through ordination to 
the priesthood. What the priest says and does in pre- 
senting and representing Christ to the people must be 
by Christ's order and appointment; but when he 
voices the offering of the people, as the Body of Christ, 
when through the priest they say, "Here we offer and 
present unto Thee, Lord, ourselves, our souls and 
bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice 
unto Thee", then he must of necessity speak with the 
consent of and by the vested authority of the people. 
This is why the laity are associated with the bishops 
in setting apart the men called into the priest- 
hood of the Church, and this is why the congrega- 
tion, through its vestry, gives assent to the ordination 
of men from its membership and also shares with 
the bishop the responsibility of giving them a cure 
over souls through the call extended to the rectorship 
of a parish. 

The second truth relative to Holy Orders which 
should also be self-evident to all who have accepted 
the truth that the Church is the continuous Body 
of Christ, is that in the ministry there must be an 
unbroken continuity of succession. We are not here 
concerned with the controversial theories and discus- 
sions which arise relative to this truth in its appli- 

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The Parish 

cation and its implications. The Catholic Church has 
always held and taught the fact of the succession of 
order and of life in and through its ordained minis- 
try. It is a witness to the continuity of the Body 
of Christ and a continuous witness also to the truth 
committed by Christ to His Church when He com- 
missioned her to preach His Gospel, make disciples, 
and minister to men the sacraments of life. 

The Holy Bible 

The writer has asked the Rt. Rev. David L. Ferris, 
formerly rector of Christ Church, Rochester, N". Y., 
now Suffragan Bishop of Western 2sew York, to write 
the following contribution on "The Devotional Use 
of the Bible". Bishop Ferris has for a number of 
years been the teacher of one of the largest men's 
Bible classes in the Church. He has been exception- 
ally successful in training his congregation in system- 
atic Bible reading and has for some time been fur- 
nishing, at the request of The Living Church, the 
suggested outline of daily Bible readings which 
through this paper have been given to the Church. 

"The Devotional Use of the Bible" 

By the Rt. Rev. David L. Ferris, D.D. 

Bishop Suffragan of Western Xew York 

"We yield our assent to the inspired Source of 
the Bible, and of its great value in the devotional 
life; but comparatively few of us can truly say with 
the Psalmist: Lord, what love have I unto Thy law: 
all the day long is my study in it. The persistent, 
habitual use of the Bible in daily devotions is very 

80 



The Teaching Mission of the Church 

rare. The explanation is simple. The people are 
not taught general!} 7 how to use the Bible to their 
own spiritual refreshment. Such knowledge is either 
assumed or overlooked. I have been privileged to 
demonstrate that men and women will read their 
Bible devotionally if intelligently guided. The Bible 
is too large a book, its themes too diverse, its literary 
forms too varied, for one reasonably to expect that it 
will continue to be read with interest and devotion 
without some definite guidance in method. 

"There are various ways in which we may profit- 
ably read the Bible with sincere and persistent appli- 
cation. One may profitably select one particular 
book, such as one of the Gospels, studying it through 
for the time to the exclusion of all others. One may 
study its great characters both for inspiration and 
warning; or one may trace its manifold themes 
through different books. For some time I have fol- 
lowed the last method. Beginning with Advent 1916, 
I have published without break in my parish calendar 
'Daily Bible Readings', in harmony with teachings of 
the Christian Year. On the following Sunday my 
Sermon has generally been based upon the Readings 
which priest and people were following during the 
week. This demanded expository preaching, the most 
difficult method there is and one of the most blessed. 
If only our clergy knew how valuable it is for them 
as well as for those committed to their care, I am 
confident there would be more consecrated effort in 
that direction. 

"In the appointed Scriptures for each Sunday of 
the year are outstanding lessons bound to those pre- 

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The Parish 

ceding and to those following by the continuity of 
Church teaching. Other portions of Scripture may 
readily be found to illustrate these lessons, and when 
these are week after week presented to the congrega- 
tion, with a thoughtful summary in the Sunday morn- 
ing sermon, the habit will be formed in the lives of 
many devout persons of systematic Bible reading, 
changing from the sense of obligation into that of 
joy. Thus will the Christian garner daily strength 
for his day's needs, as the Israelites gathered the daily 
supply of manna. I am permitted to know that 
such a plan can be made to succeed: that gradually 
the members of a congregation will adopt the method 
of daily reading when they are assured of weekly 
help and teaching, and only as some such method is 
adopted in the individual parish can the entire Church 
in time be reached. The subject appears of sufficient 
importance to justify the hope that the Presiding 
Bishop and Council may be guided to prepare daily 
Bible readings and publish them in such quantities 
that they will be within the reach of the entire 
Church." D. L. F. 

Faith 

Faith is personal trust and Christian faith is the 
personal trust of the soul of man in God revealed 
in the Incarnation. It is the bond of union between 
man and God by which we win the victory that over- 
cometh the world. It is radically different from in- 
tellectual belief which asks "how" and "why" and 
is constantly changing. Intellectual belief asks how 
God made the world and has given many answers to 

82 



The Teaching Mission of the Church 

the question. Faith believes "in God the Father Al- 
mighty, Maker of heaven and earth", and leaves Him 
to make the world as it pleases Him and leaves 
the mind of man free to investigate and find out the 
method of His creation. Faith is rooted in person- 
ality and the four great fundamentals are all the 
revelation of the personal God. 

Prayer 

Prayer is also rooted in personality and is instinc- 
tively born out of our personal relation with God. 
It is communion. It is also cooperation. God in 
His use of the Incarnation finds the human at its 
highest when the human prays. Why may not 
prayer be the association of the divine presence and 
power with the sublimated human in and through 
which God goes forth to help and heal and comfort? 
Thus He may use human love and friendship and the 
heart that cares, reaching the one for whom inter- 
cession is made by the human touch; making that 
one conscious of friend or mother; stirring some for- 
gotten resolution ; awakening some slumbering aspira- 
tion created in the soul by the intercourse and com- 
panionship of other days, for "it is God who worketh 
in us both to will and perform His good pleasure". 
And we believe He thus works through the prayer 
life of His Church. 

Other Essentials 

The public worship of the Church is essential to 
Christian nurture and the Christian witness. This 
subject is considered in another chapter. 

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The Parish 

Holy Matrimony 

Right conceptions of and a high regard for Holy 
Matrimony are surely essential to the creation and 
preservation of the home as the divinely appointed 
unit of society. The corrective for the evils of divorce 
and the divorce evil, as well as the essential safeguards 
to personal and social purity, can be found nowhere 
save in the application of the truths of the Incarna- 
tion, the call to sacrifice, and the far perspective of 
the truth of eternal life and eternal love to these 
problems by the teaching Church. Love cannot last 
through married life unless it is divine love to start 
with. This love entering into the human meets con- 
stantly much in the human man and woman which 
must be overcome, or else the love itself will be over- 
come. It is essential, therefore, that married love 
be constantly sustained by divine contacts. Quarrels 
and differences can and should be made to vanish 
in the perspective which opens down love's long vis- 
tas when these vistas are daily illumined by bed- 
side prayers. Selfishness and self-will can be con- 
quered and made to give place to love's greater rich- 
ness and beauty through sacraments and devotions 
participated in by man and wife. If from the altar 
in the Church the newly married would turn to the 
altar in the home and keep the lights ever burning 
there, then the currents of love divine would keep 
fresh and beautiful love's dream, love's hope, and 
love's fruition. 

Surely one of the divinely appointed means for 
the education and enrichment of life is the child in the 
midst. The mother bending over the cradle is the 

84 



The Teaching Mission of the Church 

constant reproduction of the Bethlehem picture of 
the Madonna and her child. No education received 
at college and university gives to life the enrichment 
and to character the depth of training which comes 
to those who consecrate themselves to bring up their 
children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 
Sacrifice here arises into realms of devotion and the 
gladsomeness of God's great love is revealed to the 
soul in the music of childhood's rippling laughter. 
The meaning and understanding of the Divine Fath- 
erhood is apprehended through the human relation- 
ship which is established when from afar there comes 
the child. Then if perchance, having come, it stays 
but a little while and turns back home again, even 
then the word "home" finds a deeper meaning and 
life a new-found treasure, for then God's Paradise 
comes to be a nearer and a dearer place because of 
life's treasures there, for where life's treasures go 
the heart turns also. 

Thus through sacraments, through the word of 
His revelation, through the ministry of divine ap- 
pointment, by faith and prayer, by love's revelation 
in human relationship, and by the worship which 
lifts the heart up to God, the life and destiny of man 
are linked by golden chains and living channels into 
the life of the Eternal Father through Jesus Christ 
our Lord. 

These are the things men live by. In the quest 
for reality in religion the Churchman should seek 
to make vital in his own life the relation of his soul 
to these fundamentals of divine truth. Let not the 
inability to understand the mystery by which they 

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The Parish 

are enfolded hinder the quest of the soul. We are 
not asked fully to understand. Religion transcends 
the intellect: it is a life and a living process. We 
find the reality of truth through experience, and 
exchange a second-hand, or inherited, belief for a 
vital faith as we walk with God along the way of life. 
Just because we see and know the glory, love, and 
beauty of His life, we instinctively stretch out the 
helping hand and give heart and treasure and life to 
give others also the chance of knowing and serving 
Him. Some day we shall know. To-day we see 
through a darkened glass and trust and worship and 
serve. The light shines upon the path that leads 
us home and, even when it is dark, the darkness 
increases our faith by making us know that we cannot 
find the way or walk alone. Thus out of the dark- 
ness rises the prayer which ever deepens human 
faith, the prayer which pleads, "Lead Thou me on." 
To-day, perhaps, the Christ within us hears this cry 
from some child of God out in the darkness. His 
impulse is to go to the rescue, but He depends on 
us who are the hands and feet of His Body. The cry 
of the world from out of the darkness will be answered 
when His Body is responsive to His Will. 



86 



CHAPTER IV 

Church Teaching and the Reconstruction 

Problem 

Never, perhaps, in the whole course of her his- 
tory has the Church been faced by more vital and 
important problems than those which now challenge 
her thought and her will to sacrifice and to serve. 
The platitudes of ultra-conservatism will not help 
the situation. Eadical pronouncements which seek 
to throw overboard compass and chart and run the 
ship by new theory devices to Eldorado lands and 
Utopian destinations are apt to land the ship on the 
rocks. Being passengers on the ship, whose captain 
seems to have been left ashore, we may well take 
part in the council which is concerned with the vital 
problem of navigation. Somebody is going to run 
the ship. It may be the agent of the devil and the 
deep sea, or it may be the Pilot who knows the haven 
where He would have us be and also the way to reach 
it. The Church is called into the council of decision. 

There are certain principles of navigation which 
should guide us in fixing the chart by which the sail- 

87 



The Parish 

ing through the troubled seas must be done. There 
are conservatives and radicals aboard. The conserva- 
tives would anchor the ship and await the passing of 
the storm. The radicals would throw the anchor 
overboard and strike ahead without compass or chart 
because they say the storm has just begun and no 
anchor will hold the craft. At present most of those 
aboard are seasick or panic stricken. 

Between the counsels of the conservatives and the 
radicals, on which side must the Church and the 
Churchman stand? In this case, as in most cases 
where it is sought to throw choice on either one or the 
other of two horns of a dilemma, the place of wisest 
choice, doubtless, lies on neither one horn nor the 
other. Truth is not pivoted on points. It is com- 
posite and reconciling. It is essentially atoning. 
It takes from each sharp horn of a dilemma the ele- 
ments of truth pivoted there and blends the seem- 
ingly conflicting into essential unity. This is not 
a compromise method but a synchronizing process. 
When truth has done this, what is left on the horns 
of the dilemma are opposing errors from which truth 
has been extracted. Truth seekers follow truth sep- 
arated from opposing errors. Fanatics and vision- 
aries still climb to the truth-barren horns of the di- 
lemma and preach and harangue and shout from them 
to the world false philosophies and schemes of re- 
construction usually born of self-interest. 

The radical and conservative dispositions of mind 
run all through human life and manifest themselves 
in music, in art, in poetry, in dress, in social relations, 
in politics, in religion, and in public opinion. Radi- 

88 



Church Teaching and the Reconstruction Problem 

calism is impatient (generally with the impatience of 
youth) with the existing order and is prone to cut 
loose from the past. Conservatism is suspicions of 
change and looks askance at new ideas, or even at 
old ones in a new programme. Conservatism ever 
seeks to guard the ancient bridges which unite the 
present with the past and demands that, if the exist- 
ing order is to be changed, progress should be made 
with prudence. Radicalism demands progress with 
courage and without caution. Thus the emphasis of 
mind is differently placed. Where there is real and 
honest disposition to serve the public welfare rather 
than the selfish interest, the chances are that the 
honest conservative and the honest radical will both 
have contributions to make to the real cause of truth. 
Acquiescence in industrial and other conditions which 
now exist or which existed prior to the war may 
spring from an ignoble content born of ultra-con- 
servatism, while even an unwise programme of ultra- 
radicalism may spring from a noble discontent. The 
mission of the Church is to point and lead the way 
to a solution of industrial problems and world prob- 
lems also, which is in accord with the Spirit of the 
Mind of Christ. 

In a recent editorial in a Church weekly, the 
question is hopefully asked, "Can Christianity fur- 
nish the vision and the spiritual power to save the 
social order from its present chaos of materialism 
and make possible in practical affairs the outworking 
of the Spirit of Jesus?" The divine origin of the 
Church gives assurance that it can. It demands, 
however, the cooperation of the human. The Church 

89 



The Parish 

member, rather than the truth, calls for the question 
mark. 

In the search for the truth which holds the sure 
promise of ultimate success in the solution of these 
vexed problems, the Churchman does not have to look 
beyond the great fundamental truths of revelation 
to which the Catholic Creeds bear witness. He does, 
however, need to look more deeply into their meaning 
and implications. A radical departure from these 
truths will only increase the chaos of the situation. 
What is needed is a radical application of conserva- 
tive truth to present conditions. So-called "new 
truth" is generally error in so far as it is new. iSTew 
revelations and new applications of old truth are ever 
called for by the evolution of life, and each genera- 
tion brings to the Church the challenge to prove the 
divinity of the revelation, which is continuous and 
progressive in her life, by showing that it is indeed 
adequate to meet and solve the new problems which 
come with each new age. 

The Churchman should remember that the funda- 
mental truths to which the Catholic Creeds bear wit- 
ness are not maxims of ethics or dogmas of theology, 
but rather the expression of the Church's faith in the 
living Christ continuously incarnate in His Body, the 
Church; continuously seeking, in cooperation with 
the human will, to make, through and in His Church, 
the sacrifices which will make peace through the 
power of the continuous cross; offering eternal life 
and the spirit of eternal love to heal the wounded, to 
bind up the broken-hearted, and to give release to 
those who are bound in captivity through oppression ; 

90 



Church Teaching and the Reconstruction Problem 

and constantly calling His Church to be His witness 
and the means of His expression and continuous reve- 
lation. The statement by Archbishop Benson that 
"our century and decade are the times of Christ and 
we are His contemporaries" is true of every age. 

It is because the Churchman has not attained the 
faith to see the vision of a living, present Christ, 
seeking in cooperation with man to carry on and 
bring to completion the great unfinished work and 
revelation of God, or else because he has not the 
courage of a conquering conviction, that he gives 
heed to the nostrums of short-cut reformers and fails 
himself, too often, to develop a deep sense of personal 
responsibility which would impel him to offer and 
consecrate to Christ the fulness of his own nature, 
that through him the word and will of the living and 
ever present Christ may be expressed in the social 
order. 

In calling the Churchman to a loyal expression 
of the fundamentals of his faith as the most helpful 
contribution he can make to the solution of the prob- 
lems of the present, the Church gives a call and 
challenge which it is not easy to follow. Eadical 
application of conservative truth means, first of all, 
the deep cutting into the sensitive centers of one's 
own soul and of one's own interests. It means prob- 
ing to the bottom of life's motives with an honest 
and unrelenting willingness to know the truth, cost 
what it may. It means accepting for one's own life 
the revelation and implication of the Incarnation, and 
this means, among other things, the ability to put 
oneself in the other man's place in determining what 

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The Parish 

is right for the other man. It is the duty of the 
Church to ask that Churchmen do this. The condi- 
tions under which men work and live, the natural 
love, hope, and aspirations which men should have 
for home and loved ones, and the disposition of a man 
to give those loved ones the best that life holds for 
them, are matters which should be judged in the 
light of how the Churchman would feel and think 
in like circumstances. The cant and unsympathetic 
comment often heard in protest against high wages, 
to the effect that the workingman has a victrola, a 
piano, or seven children, and wants to have enough 
to enjoy them and then save money, is at least not 
made from the view point of the Incarnation. It 
does not manifest the spirit of a real human sympathy 
or the fellowship of interest involved in Christian 
brotherhood. The fact that with increased wages 
there has often come decreased production is a just 
and compelling cause for indignation and complaint. 
The radical application of conservative funda- 
mental truth means also the personal acceptance of 
the implications of the Cross. Christ's cross is the 
only one that stands for self-crucifixion. All other 
crosses have been and are being set up for the cruci- 
fixion of other men for selfish ends. The Cross of 
Christ calls for the crucifixion in self and in one's 
own business of injustice and greed and covetousness, 
and for the crucifixion also of the willingness to 
acquire personal wealth under conditions which put 
other men and women on the cross of poverty and 
anguish and despair. It means, for instance, that 
the man who makes excessive profit in handling coal 

92 



Church Teaching and the Reconstruction Problem 

at any stage in its passage from the mine to the 
furnace has got to crucify his will to greed or be held 
humanly, as he is held divinely, responsible for the 
pneumonia and death which come to the families of 
the poor who cannot pay extortionate prices and 
adequately heat their houses. It means, also, that 
the workman who reduces production, while he re- 
ceives a wage which implies a contract for an honest 
day's work, has got to crucify in himself the dis- 
position to steal what he does not earn or be ranked 
with other robbers as the oppressor and sometimes 
the murderer of the unfortunate. And it means still 
further, but just as really, that those who spend 
money for luxuries or luxuriously spend money for 
needful things are helping to create a situation out of 
which the high cost of living arises. As long as 
there is too much money or too much credit, prices 
will be high, and those who have little money and 
limited credit will suffer. The Cross has a message 
for this situation which the Churchman should dis- 
cover and apply. 

The Churchman should also recognize that the 
Christian revelation does not contain the justification 
for handling the wage problem on the basis of pay- 
ing only what is demanded. The word "demand" 
is an unbrotherly word. Its constant recurrence in 
the discussion of the industrial problems of the 
present betokens an antagonistic and unsocial state of 
mind. The Incarnation and the Cross are revelations 
of the nature of a self-giving and a self-sacrificing 
God. As the Churchman becomes a partaker of the 
divine Nature, he comes also to share in the divine 

93 



The Parish 

method of expression, and shares and gives not be- 
cause of what is demanded of him but because of the 
joy that springs from making it possible for others 
to have a more abundant life and a larger and 
gladder freedom. 

The relation of the Churchman to the revelation 
of eternal life also involves certain definite social 
responsibilities. God's gift of eternal life is cove- 
nanted and communicated through the Church. It 
is in His Son, who is in His Body, the Church. The 
attitude of this Body should be Christ-revealing with 
reference to the social order. If the Body, through 
its members, becomes class conscious and class an- 
tagonistic; if the selfish spirit dominates individual 
action so that the Church becomes the corporate 
institution of the privileged class and justly liable 
to this accusation, a barrier of prejudice is created 
between the children of God and the divinely con- 
stituted channels of eternal life. It is just be- 
cause the divine contact with the human problem is 
essential to its solution that the Churchman is called 
to do all in his power to break down the walls of 
prejudice and help bring the masses into vital contact 
with God through His Church. Any and every sacri- 
fice made in the name of Christ and His Church 
which will help form a point of contact between a 
human need and the divine spirit of helpfulness, be- 
tween a sin-slaved soul and a sacrament of life, be- 
tween poverty's despair and the Christian prophecy 
of redemption, is a positive and constructive contribu- 
tion to the divine adjustment of the social order. 

When to self and self-interest there is radically 

94 



Church Teaching and the Reconstruction Problem 

applied the living and fundamental truth (for Christ 
is the truth) to which the conservative Catholic 
Creeds bear witness ; when social greed and covetous- 
ness, when injustice and all unbrotherliness, are cut 
to the roots by the radical soul-surgery of the Great 
Physician of the social order, when the Incarnation, 
the Cross, and the conquering power of eternal life 
are witnessed to in the Churchman's attitude to the 
problems of his day; then the Mission of the Church 
will be manifest and its power evidenced in the new 
social, industrial, and world order which will be es- 
tablished upon earth. He who taught His Church 
to pray, "Thy Kingdom come," is Himself the King- 
dom's foundation. Other foundation, which will en- 
dure, can no man lay, but every Churchman is called 
to help lay this one. 



95 



CHAPTER V 

The Pastor and His People 

The scope and plan of this handbook does not 
allow or call for a treatise on the pastoral office. 
Something should, however, be said relative to some 
of the practical aspects of the pastor's life and work 
among his people, and the effort to say these things, 
in a chapter added at the suggestion of the Bishop 
who wrote the introduction to this little book, calls 
for a preface and an apology. 

There are diversities of gifts in the sacred min- 
istry, and sometimes the gifts which one most covets 
are those which one is conscious of possessing in very 
small measure. The writer's preference would be 
that this brief chapter should have been written by 
another, and by one more expert in the office and 
work of which we speak. On the other hand, one 
may look back, as doubtless every priest of God's 
Church does, and wish, in the light of experience, 
that the emphasis of one's ministry might have been 
somewhat differently placed. After life has become 
less plastic, many men in the ministry become aware 
of the fact that, either from lack of training, by 

96 



The Pastor and His People 

reason of circumstance, or from a lack of a right 
sense of proportion, time has not been rightly divided. 
Too often it happens that one finds oneself called 
here and there to do and say many things in which 
one has become somewhat proficient, overlooking or 
neglecting duties and privileges more personal, more 
vital, and more necessary. Out of such experiences 
one may, however, speak with more modesty, even 
though it be with less authority, on a subject so 
personal and important as the pastoral ministry. 

First of all a marked distinction needs to be 
made between parish calling and pastoral visiting. 
It is, doubtless, true that a call which is made to 
ask those to "come to church" who are worldly-minded 
and self-encased, lacking all sense of responsibility 
as to Christian duty and Church obligation, does more 
harm than good. It flatters their vanity. It makes 
them feel that they honor the Church by their pres- 
ence, and pulls down the standard of loyalty and re- 
sponsibility which, as a matter of fact, needs to be 
made much higher than it is. A real pastoral call 
devoted to an earnest effort to create a sense of per- 
sonal responsibility in these people and a conscious- 
ness of loyalty to and love for Christ and His Church 
may do good, but constant calling to urge them to 
come to church is a waste of time and is, in our 
opinion, a harmful practice. Such people need, first 
of all, to be disillusioned and made to see and know 
that they have a real need of conversion. Unless 
coming to church is an act of loyalty and devotion 
to Christ, or unless it represents the conviction that 
a man should at least give to the Church the support 

97 



The Parish 

of his presence and example, just coming to church 
in response to a call by the rector would hardly seem 
to be worth while. The principal value found in 
routine calling and the chief compensation for the 
usual barrenness of it lies in the fact that often 
there is discovered along the way the hidden but real 
and vital need for a real pastoral visit. Parish 
calling should always be designed to open the door 
to a pastoral visit. Conversation should be guided 
away from the weather, the political situation, and 
trivial affairs and be lifted to a plane where points 
of contact may be found with the deep soul needs 
of life. It is in the realm of higher thought and 
feeling that confidence is established and the way 
opened to a vital and helpful ministry. 

Just at this point attention may be called to the 
fact, which is not generally recognized, that the parson 
as well as the parishioner has need of what a real 
pastoral visit may supply if it is paid to him. The 
layman should sometimes play the part of pastor to 
his parson. The latter is too often left apart and 
alone. He needs the stimulus and inspiration which 
would come from a visit paid him by a vestryman or 
a call from a layman who might drop in to talk 
things over. The one-track mind is often the result 
of the fact that no train of thought other than its 
own is ever dispatched over it. Under these cir- 
cumstances it is apt to become a narrow-gauge, as 
well as a one-track, mind, and often it is in large 
measure the layman's fault that it becomes so. 

The pastoral care of the sick and ministry in 
times of sorrow is supremely important and essen- 

98 



The Pastor and His People 

tially different from parish calling. For this min- 
istry special training is needed. It requires not 
alone the grace of God which makes one want to do 
it, but a knowledge of psychology, the gift of com- 
monsense, and the spirit of God which enables one to 
know how it should be done. It would be well if 
men in training for the ministry could be allowed, 
for the purpose of instruction, to accompany a real 
pastor in visitations to the sick and through the wards 
of hospitals. Clinic practice in pastoral care of the 
sick would be most valuable. A ministerial retreat 
might occasionally be held to advantage, under expert 
guidance, in the wards of a hospital. The atmos- 
phere which one carries into a sick room or creates 
there, whether of cheer and hope or of gloom and 
despondency, largely determines the value or harm of 
a pastoral visit to the sick and also frequently de- 
termines the attitude of physicians and hospital 
authorities as to the value or harm of such visits. 
The sick room or the challenge of a sick or doubting 
soul are testing laboratories of the truth and balance 
of a man's theology. Just what is said, for instance, 
about prayer to a person who is ill may bring either 
hope and resignation or result in skepticism or 
despair. Spiritual prescriptions need to be prepared 
with exceeding care, especially when given to life 
under the abnormal conditions of sickness, sorrow, 
and skepticism. 

The pastoral relation offers many opportunities 
for enriching life and for creating and strengthening 
the ties which bind the hearts of men to God through 
His Church. The thing that one always wants to 

99 



The Parish 

avoid is asking people to do things as a favor or 
kindness to the minister himself. The call to service 
should always be a higher call than this. It should 
be asked and rendered for His sake who has called 
the Church to be His Body and who asks service of 
His Body that His Mind and Love may be expressed. 
Parishes that are built upon the personal popularity 
of a gifted rector or devoted pastor are built on 
foundations unsubstantial, while loyal service which 
continues to be rendered, even in spite of ministerial 
defects and unpopularity, helps to make enduring the 
structure of parish life. 

It will be found that the things that are done 
beyond the measure of what is expected are the 
things most appreciated and longest remembered. 
The thought of the sick when one is away and sup- 
posed to be thinking of something else : a word or 
letter of appreciation for some service rendered, 
recognizing it as rendered to Christ through His 
Church: the ability to win cooperation by leading 
people to make your plan their plan also : the voicing 
of Christ's great hope and desire so that it is accepted 
as the desire and hope of the people : the opportunity 
given to people to discuss and help decide upon the 
plan and programme which they are expected to 
support and carry out : the discovery of people to 
themselves through the faith which leads the pastor 
to get their consent to do things: the detection of 
marks of leadership and the willingness to trust 
people with responsibility : all this comes in the day^s 
work and helps to make the joy and gladness of the 
pastoral ministry. 

100 



The Pastor and His People 

It is the responsibility of some to have official and 
pastoral relationship with the rich. They, as well as 
the poor, need to 'liave the Gospel preached to them". 
Often they need it much more than the poor, and it 
is not always the easiest gospel to preach. We are 
speaking here, however, not of the preacher's re- 
sponsibility, but of the pastoral relationship. The 
pastor should see that the barriers of separation which 
wealth tends to build between him and the rich in his 
congregation are broken down in order that he may 
have perfect freedom of conference with those whose 
counsel and advice he needs. Too often the rich are 
made to feel that they are approached and appreciated 
only, or chiefly, because of their money. This they 
rightfully resent. A rector has far more need of the 
judgment, advice, and discretion which has enabled 
a man to become successful in business than he has 
for the riches which the man may have acquired. 
This confidence and mutual respect is not alone 
needed by the rector, but is needed also in the vestry. 
Perfect freedom in the discussion of plans and ways 
and means for their accomplishment should prevail, 
regardless of what the plan would cost the rich men 
on the vestry should the plan be determined upon. 
The man possessed of large means and also of a large 
mind and sympathy will appreciate the fact that the 
undertaking will cost the average man in the parish 
just as much, if not more, in terms of sacrifice than 
it would cost him ; and, if he has been brought to feel 
that his candid counsel and advice is asked and de- 
sired, regardless of the measure of his ability to con- 
tribute, he will give his counsel with a generosity of 

101 



The Parish 

spirit equal to his generosity in giving money. It 
really is not fair to men and women of wealth to 
make them feel, or to allow the parish to feel, that 
they are valued according to or because of their rating 
in Bradstreet. Sometimes they do not possess the 
personal worth that the rating would suggest. Often 
they will be found to be worth vastly more as coun- 
sellors than as contributors if the money barrier can 
be broken down. They should be made to feel and 
express that comradeship and fellowship in counsel 
and service which is based upon spiritual, rather than 
material, foundations. 

A man in the ministry is in the chancel and pulpit 
very few hours as compared with the amount of time 
spent in parish administration and in pastoral service. 
The Sunday and Saints' Day ministry has to be 
worked out in the laboratory of pastoral experience. 
It is there that theology is tested and transmuted 
into the religion that transfigures life, and there that 
the doctrines and psychology of books are refined and 
distilled into the dew and sunshine which give glory 
and beauty to the flowers of immortality in the 
garden of God. All the while it is the mind and 
heart and will of the Christ which the pastor is being 
called to express. He cannot do it alone. He must 
have fellowship with God. He must find spaces, for 
silence, for prayer, and meditation. His ministry to 
men must be guided by the purpose, which prayer 
creates, of bringing the thought and conduct of his 
people into closer fellowship with God. Somehow 
this purpose, if persevered in, creates in a man the 
spirit of the gentleman, a spirit essential to real Chris- 

102 



The Pastor and His People 

tianity. It makes him comprehensive in sympathy, 
firm in matters of principle, but never domineering 
or overbearing in his dealing with others. His 
sympathy becomes a human expression of a divine, 
indwelling love, and his friendship an interpretation 
of the care and consideration of God. 

If he is a student of life, he will come to see that 
ministry to childhood is the most potent and resultful 
ministry which he directs or renders, and will more 
and more shift the emphasis of his interest and en- 
deavor from schemes to reform society to the work 
of teaching and ministry which seeks to form the 
plastic spirit of childhood. At times he will almost 
wish that about half of the adnlt membership of his 
parish could become invisible, at least to the eyes of 
the children, and that he might have a chance to 
point the faith and courage of youth to paths steep 
and difficult which lead up to God and which the 
children would choose and follow, were they not beset 
by unspiritual highway robbers who, by evil example 
and negligence, steal away the faith, devotion, and 
courage of childhood. 

It would be well if in some way the parishioner 
could be brought to know the rector's work and prob- 
lems. It may be truly said that in the average parish 
there is not one person who knows and understands 
what the ministerial work involves, unless there be 
in the parish a minister's wife, and even she will not 
fully know, if the rectory is a real retreat (as it 
should be and often is) from the cares which call at 
the close of day for rest and diversion of mind. The 
problems faced by a group captain, multiplied by the 

103 



The Parish 

number of parish groups, would suggest the expe- 
riences of a pastor in one line of his work. There is 
no question but that the creation of the Parish 
Council and the Church Service League, including 
the parish group organization, will greatly relieve the 
rector from the burden of detail and also widen and 
deepen the knowledge and understanding of the people 
in the work and responsibility of the priest and 
pastor of the parish. 

The Church must, of necessity, depend in large 
measure upon voluntary service. The vestry and the 
people of the parish, especially the efficient business 
man, should bear this fact in mind when comparison 
is made between the way the parish is run and the 
way a well-ordered business is directed. Voluntary 
service is the glory of the life of the Church. It 
springs from wills responsive to the call of Christ. 
It originates in devotion to the Lord and Master of 
life and is the tribute of love and loyalty rendered 
by the soul to the Head of the Church. It springs 
from consecration made by those who have seen the 
vision of the cross and learned its meaning, and is 
the expression of faith in Him in whose Spirit the 
service is rendered. The pastor who has faith and 
courage will do men and women the honor of laying 
before them the challenge to do big things in a big 
way. He will not minimize the difficulty or seek to 
belittle the magnitude of the service which he asks 
men to render. He will go to the busiest men and 
women with the challenge to service, recognizing that 
they are busy because they are efficient. He will 
study men and women and seek to fit them to the 

104 



The Pastor and His People 

duties and to the leadership which require the talents 
which they possess, and he will never fail to offer 
daily intercessions for God's blessing upon them when 
they have consented to serve in positions of respon- 
sibility. 

It will, nevertheless, often occur that voluntary 
service is hindered by causes over which the volunteers 
have no control. It frequently happens that there is 
lacking a deep sense of personal responsibility. The 
rector has no compelling power of control. He can- 
not require attendance at committee meetings or 
quickly discharge the volunteer who fails to produce 
desired results. Some pastors in the Church, as a 
result of these conditions, form the habit of trying 
to do everything themselves; others persist in prayer 
and in the endeavor to find by degrees those who in 
volunteer service will be as efficient and faithful a9 
paid workers would be. Surely this is the better 
way. It has the example of the Master and His min- 
istry. He trusted men. He depended upon volun- 
tary service, and even though one of His chosen ones 
was a thief and another denied Him, and all, at one 
time, "forsook Him and fled", He won eleven of them 
back again. And He built His Church upon their 
faith and voluntary service, which He blessed and 
empowered, leaving His Church to be His Body and 
His Witness and trusting its continuity and its per- 
petuity to the loving service which the pastors of His 
flock would through the ages inspire His followers to 
render in His name and for His sake. May He who 
is the Chief Pastor of the fold inspire and guide the 
pastors of His holy Church to keep ever in remem- 

105 



■". ll :. 7 ": ■ . .".'7 : : : 









CHAPTER VI 
Pari<i 11 inn at i N 

The peace of the par* is generally neoesE 
the progress of the priest and the parishioners in what 
the Church catechism calls : < 
By peao s not meant stagnation. The parish that 
has fallen into peaceful slumber sometimes needs 
rnde awakening which may disturb the I i ued 
calm, the ease, and the dignity of it? dormant life. 
There are, hoi sefi - i which 

so frequently destroy the harmony of parish life that 
it would seem worth while to place red signal lights 
to guard the approai bes dang 

(1) When the vestry's call to a rector is based on 
the fav opinion oi |] sermon or upon 

the impression made by the "preacher" upon 
the visiting committee of the vestry, or when the 
call follows the enthusiastic endorsement by 
Vestryman of some brilliant man who preached at 
the seaside chapel last summer, the foundatic 
a harmonious relationship between rector and 
pie is, :; my the leas:, somewhat insecurely and 
sv.veriieially laid. 

107 



The Parish 

(2) When the vestry fails to meet its contract obli- 
gations and tacitly seeks to get rid of a rector by 
starving him out, the seeds of discord are sown, 
because there are sure to be some self-respecting 
and loyal Churchmen who will protest against 
this method of dealing with a priest of the Church 
of God and who are apt to make trouble, which 
perhaps needs to be made, in a parish which selects 
this method of advertising its own unworthiness. 

(3) The rector who seeks hastily to impose upon 
the parish to which he has just come his personal 
opinions, or even cherished convictions, as to rit- 
ual or non-ritual, or seeks to make radical changes 
in accustomed practices or cherished methods of 
parochial administration before he has won the 
confidence and love of his people, is apt to reap 
the whirlwind of discord, or produce friction and 
opposition which would be avoided if he spent a 
reasonable amount of time praying for the gift 
of common sense. 

(4) Eectors and vestries surely need to beware of 
forcing important matters by bare majority votes 
over the heads of a conscientious minority in oppo- 
sition. It is often well worth while to wait for 
months and sometimes for years until the opposi- 
tion of the minority is reduced to practically a 
negligible point before the new policy or plan is 
determined upon. It will generally be found that 
the added power of a united parish back of the 
project will give to it a momentum which will 
more than compensate for the time lost in wait- 
ing; and those most opposed at first often come 

108 



Parish Harmon}) Notes 

to be the most potent promoters of the plan be- 
cause they feel that they have received a considera- 
tion which prompts them to a larger devotion 
when their assent has been finally secured. 

(5) People who love their Church will never seek 
to rule it. It is self-love and self-conceit which 
generates the spirit of the lay (or lay woman) 
pope. Self-assertiveness blinds the vision and ob- 
scures the Christ. The good leader is always the 
close follower of Christ. Those who seek leader- 
ship are generally those whom it is unsafe to 
follow. Good leaders often dwell where modesty 
and the disposition to say "no", at first, are found. 
The parish priest who, in conscious dependence 
upon the divine guidance, chooses wisely his parish 
leaders, and gives them his confidence and help 
when they have assumed responsibility, eliminates 
many of the causes of possible discord in the 
harmony of parochial administration. 

(6) Perception as to the real value of a point at 
issue is often of vital importance. It frequently 
does not really matter whether people agree or 
not about some point in controversy. If it is 
not vital, it surely is not wise to drive it into 
anybody. A little wedge which, if left alone, 
would be forgotten or overshadowed in a week or 
two, is sometimes hammered on and driven in 
until it splits the organization or the parish. 
Such moments call for a good joke; a diversion 
that will break the tension. The Bishop of Lon- 
don, speaking to a number of ministers, once said, 
"If you haven't a sense of humor, pray for it." 

109 



The Parish 

(7) As to sermons, it would be well to see that they 
are always provided with adequate terminal facili- 
ties. A wise senior warden once suggested to an 
enthusiastic clergyman, after a long discourse on 
an exceptionally hot Sunday, that he attach a 
thermostat to his sermon. There is more latent 
possibility of friction in sermons well thought out 
at the beginning, partly planned in the middle, 
and with no end to them planned at all, than is 
sometimes realized. 

(8) People are not always harmonious; and people, 
with their capacities for discords and harmonies, 
make up our parishes. Frictions are, therefore, 
at times inevitable, but most people have, even 
beneath their tired nerves, marvelous capacities 
and an instinctive love for harmony. If in the 
parish the disposition to criticise could be sup- 
planted by the disposition to pray and if, when 
constructive criticism is needed, it would be 
frankly given to those who are concerned, har- 
mony would generally prevail in parish life. The 
loyal Churchman will always remember that it is 
the Body of Christ which is either built up or di- 
vided asunder by the way we behave ourselves in 
the Church of God. If we bear in our bodies "the 
marks of the Lord Jesus", we will ever refrain 
from placing upon His Body the marks of our 
own self-will and unregenerate nature. His last 
intercession with His disciples was for the unity 
of His Church. Dwelling in His Body, He is 
ever present to hear the notes of harmony or of 
discord which are sounded there. Priest and 

110 



Parish Harmony Notes 

people, remembering this, will surely seek to make 
all discord cease, that what He hears as He listens 
may be in harmony with His will and with the 
spirit of His own life of service. 



CHAPTEE VII 

Worship and Service 

Church Attendance and Loyalty 

The Church, with reference to the sense of obliga- 
tion felt by its members to participate regularly in 
corporate worship, is suffering to-day from the per- 
verted individualism of Protestantism. The appeal 
of Protestant teaching for individual liberty, if 
linked with the obligation of individual responsibility, 
is a worthy appeal when it is rightly understood. It 
has, however, happened that this liberty has degen- 
erated into license and a consequent laxness in 
loyalty. In rejecting the Catholic claim to authority 
many Protestants have swung off into irresponsible 
individualism and have come to pay attention to no 
claim upon their lives for Church attendance other 
than their own desire and self-will. It is an easy 
example to follow, and our Church folk have culti- 
vated very extensively the habit of doing it, and are 
often leaders in setting the example to others. As 
a result serious consequences have followed. 

(1) The witness-bearing power of the Church as 

112 



Worship and Service 

a corporate Body is greatly weakened. The world 
rightly measures love by loyalty. 

(2) The Church's power of intercession is 
weakened. 

(3) The condition of heart and mind which 
leads to wilful absence from the worship of the 
Church reflects itself in the disposition to give second 
place to the claims of God and duty upon life at 
other times also. 

(4) The standard of loyalty is lowered. It is 
found quite impossible to hold the newly confirmed 
up to ideals to which the congregation is not re- 
sponsive, especially where parents and friends set the 
example of careless disregard to the call and claim 
of worship upon life. 

(5) Incidentally it would be well for Church- 
men to consider how this laxness on the part of the 
people of the parish tends to sap the enthusiasm of 
the clergy and shroud souls that should be sustained 
by the devotion of the congregation with a sense of 
discouragement. 

The two most compelling among the reasons why 
Churchmen should cultivate the habit of regular at- 
tendance upon worship are first, that it strengthens 
the power and influence of the Church which is 
needed to counteract the spirit of materialism, and 
to preserve the integrity of the home, of society, of 
business, and of the State as well as of individual char- 
acter ; and, then, also, that God has the right to expect 
gratitude and obedience from those for whom He 
has done and is doing so much. The heart of Divine 
Love must of necessity be responsive to the conduct 

113 



The Parish 

of His children and must experience disappointment 
and sorrow at the sight of wilful disobedience; and, 
on the other hand, a deep sense of joy in the response 
of loyal devotion. 

Nine Reasons for Attending Church 

[By Theodore Roosevelt] 

The following reasons for attending church given 
by Theodore Roosevelt are of interest as coming from 
one who was a profound student of his times and a 
keen observer of men. He says : 

(1) "In this actual world, a churchless com- 
munity, a community where men have abandoned and 
scoffed at, or ignored, their religious needs, is a com- 
munity on the rapid down grade. 

(2) " Church work and Church attendance mean 
the cultivation of the habit of feeling some respon- 
sibility for others. 

(3) "There are enough holidays for most of us. 
Sundays differ from other holidays in the fact that 
there are fifty-two of them every year — therefore, on 
Sundays, go to church. 

(4) "Yes, I know all the excuses. I know that 
one can worship the Creator in a grove of trees, or 
b}' a running brook, or in a man's own house just as 
well as in church. But I also know as a matter of 
cold fact that the average man does not thus worship. 

(5) "He may not hear a good sermon at church. 
He will hear a sermon by a good man, who, with his 
good wife, is engaged all the week in making hard 
lives a little easier. 

(6) "He will listen to and take part in reading 

114 



Worship and Service 

some beautiful passages from the Bible. And if he 
is not familiar with the Bible he has suffered a loss. 

(7) "He will take part in singing some good 
hymns. 

(8) a He will meet and nod or speak to good, 
quiet neighbors. He will come away feeling a little 
more charitable toward all the world, even towards 
those excessively foolish young men who regard 
church-going as a soft performance. 

(9) "I advocate a man's joining in Church work 
for the sake of showing his faith by his works." 

There is also need that every Churchman should 
feel a sense of responsibility for making his contribu- 
tion to the effective rendering of the service of the 
Church. Worship in the church is corporate. There 
should be no slackers. Every voice should join in 
every response. In this way the beauty of the service 
will be made manifest and, as an offering to God, it 
should be made as perfect and complete and as devo- 
tional as possible. The master musician would note 
the silence of the harp or violin in the orchestra. 
The God whom we worship notes also the absence or 
the silence of each voice withdrawn from the worship 
offered to Him. This statement should win the 
willing assent of every one who believes that God is 
present in the world and that He is an intelligent 
Being. 

It would be well if, at times, the parish priest 
would get groups of people together for training in 
responsive reading. The group meetings offer op- 
portunity for such training, which would stimulate 
church attendance and also enrich the tone of wor- 

115 



The Parish 

ship. The Church's heritage of worship is a treasure 
which has been transmitted to us through the ages 
and which we hold in trust. Each generation may 
add to its enrichment, but it must be transmitted to 
the future in its essential integrity as a witness and 
expression of the Catholic faith. The richness and 
beauty of the liturgy of the Church has a winsome 
power of attractiveness, and should inspire the 
Churchman to do his part in every service to set forth 
its compelling power, that those who, for reasons 
which largely no longer exist, separated themselves 
from its use may be drawn again to accept the ancient 
and ordered heritage of faith and worship which has 
been bequeathed to Anglo-American Christianity. 

The Catholic Liturgy and Catholic-mindedness 

A Catholic liturgy however calls for a Catholic 
mind, and a service and devotion to humanity which 
should not be delimited by sectarian narrowness or 
national exclusiveness. There should be an outgoing 
breadth of sympathy and thought from those who 
share in the truly Catholic worship of the Church 
which should contribute breadth of view and strength 
of conviction to public opinion. In the process of 
reconstructing an upturned and devastated world the 
Churchman should be a leader among those who in- 
sist that the future shall be built upon divine founda- 
tions and upon Catholic rather than purely national 
and selfish principles. He should also be a leader 
among those who seek to lay foundations for the 
future economic and industrial reconstruction which 
square with the Creed. A universal brotherhood 

116 



Worship and Service 

under a common Fatherhood is the credal basis for 
the worship and conviction of the Church. What- 
ever the Episcopal Church may be in practice it is not 
narrow and exclusive in the faith which it confesses. 
Kationalism, sensationalism, and ignorance may com- 
bine, as they have often done, to pull down ancient 
standards to the level of the world-bound mind, but 
the Church will continue to hold to her faith in 
the divine Incarnation, in the divine sacrifice, in 
the divine gift of the Eternal and more abundant 
life, and follow on her mission to make all men 
everywhere know the truth that makes men free. 
The challenge to come down from the cross, to shun 
the supernatural and mystical, is an old one and 
needs to be resisted to-day for the saving of the world, 
as when the Master resisted it and hung alone and 
misunderstood upon His Cross. Eeverence is not a 
characteristic of our age, nor is the disposition to have 
and hold to a simple faith in truth transcendent. 
But the age needs reverence and it needs faith and 
he best serves his generation who lives beyond and 
above the current standards of faith and practice 
which prevail among men. 

Service 

Service follows worship, if worship is vital, as 
flowers answer the call of the sunshine. The charac- 
ter and tone of the worship of the Church surely calls 
for a type of service which if given would enrich the 
life of the world. There is good reason to believe 
that the new organization of this national branch of 
the Church when applied to the diocese and to the 

117 



The Parish 

parish will stimulate and develop the life of service 
in the Church far beyond the point hitherto attained. 
There is one further thought, in addition to what 
has been said in the chapter on the organization of 
the Church, which needs to be presented and prac- 
tised, because it is essentially fundamental in the 
realm of service, namely, 

Christian Stewardship 

The Nation-wide Campaign for the fulfilment of 
the Church's Mission has stirred the heart and mind 
and will of the Church to deeper devotion and larger 
sacrifice wherever the Church has been obedient to the 
call of Christ, voiced through this endeavor. The 
whole matter of giving, however, needs to be placed 
upon the sure and lasting foundation of principle. 
The usual distinction which many insist upon making 
between what they call the material, or money, side 
of the Campaign and its spiritual aspects is indicative 
of a misconception which needs to be removed from 
the mind of the people of the Church. We are not 
pagan dualists, but Christian Churchmen. When 
Christ incorporates the giving of our material sub- 
stance into the programme of His Kingdom, He lifts 
money-giving to a place side by side with His own 
self-giving, for money is stored up personality and 
labor. He redeems it. He sanctifies it. He in- 
corporates it into the realm of the spiritual. The 
Church bears her constant witness to this truth by 
receiving and presenting the offerings of the people 
and placing them on the altar, side by side with the 
sacramental elements of the Body and Blood of Christ. 

118 



Worship and Service 

It would seem that this was a complete and sufficient 
answer by the Church to the heresy of dualism, which 
held that God created only a part of the world, and 
that an evil god, or devil, created money and other 
evil things. 

It seems, however, that something further needs 
to be done to eradicate this misconception from the 
minds of some Churchmen, and this can probably 
best be done by calling upon the Church to place 
the matter of Christian Stewardship upon a Chris- 
tian business basis. The introduction of high busi- 
ness methods into Christian practice does not lessen, 
but increases, the spirit of devotion. 

The Stewardship Account-Boole 

Each one should determine what proportion of 
his income should be devoted to the Church and 
to charity. The plan here proposed is not for the 
uniform giving of the Tithe. That was the Jewish 
law. The Christian principle is proportionate giv- 
ing. Some may be able to give only five per cent. 
Others can well afford to give fifty per cent, of 
their income. The amount to be given should be 
thoughtfully and prayerfully considered, and then 
entered upon the Stewardship Account-Book. It 
may then be apportioned among the months of the 
year and held in sacred trust for God. The value 
of the method will soon become apparent. It will 
establish the principle of making God's claim 
upon life prior to other claims. It will help the 
Churchman to fulfill the Bible injunction which says, 
"It is required of stewards that a man be found 

119 



The Parish 

faithful." It will settle all through the year the 
question of ability to give to the constant calls and, 
if one's giving is done on this principle, any refusal 
to contribute to a special cause can be shown to 
result from systematic generosity, rather than from 
selfish indifference. The writer recalls a visit paid 
a number of years ago to the office of an ex-governor 
of the State of New York on behalf of an institution 
of the Church which was in need of financial help. 
The governor pressed a button and had brought to 
him an account book. It was November when the 
call was made. Turning to the November page of 
the book and to the December page the ex-governor 
said, "I can give nothing in November or December, 
but will send a check in January." He entered the 
promised amount under that month and in due time 
his check was received. He explained that it was 
his habit to keep books in account of his steward- 
ship, and that he found it a most helpful practice. 
If this method could become generally established 
in the Church, the Every-Member Canvass would 
come to be a joy, rather than a burden upon the 
Church, because it would be only the fruitage garner- 
ing of a harvest which was ready for the reaping. If, 
to the many "Leagues" now existing in the Church, 
it were desirable to add another, this might well be 
a "Stewardship League". In one congregation where 
this stewardship principle of proportionate giving has 
been adopted, the income for all purposes has been so 
largely increased that the financial problem has ceased 
to exist. 

The recognition of the principle of Christian 

120 



Worship and Service 

Stewardship in its relation to the giving of money 
will cultivate the disposition to apply the principle 
to the consecration of time and of talent and of 
energy also to the service of God. 

In Conclusion 

This little Handbook is sent on its journey with 
the hope and prayer that it may serve some useful 
purpose in the Church. It is largely the outcome of 
a quest, through the years of one's ministry, for 
freedom from the tyranny of the present inadequate 
Church organization. We have all seen well disposed 
parishioners who have thrown themselves eagerly into 
the organized work of the parish church, but have 
soon become discouraged because of the lack of sym- 
pathy on the part of the vestry and congregation. 
We have many times been impressed with the relative 
unreality of some of the tasks to which peojile in 
the parish are called to give their time and energy, 
and have felt that these were unworthy of the Name 
in which the service was asked. Priests of God's 
Church often find that the wish to give themselves 
more fully "to prayer and the ministry of the word" 
is thwarted by the insistent call to supervise and di- 
rect the organization side of parish life. The grind 
of wheels which turn without making progress com- 
mensurate to the energy expended tries the patience 
and often saps the enthusiasm of life. From all this 
one turns to the Gospel picture of the frictionless 
movement of the Master's life where, even in the 
moments of greatest stress and strain, there is heard 
the voice of angels. The calm was due to the domi- 

121 



The Parish 

nant spirit of His life, rather than to the conditions 
under which He lived, while with us there is need 
to create conditions which will help produce in us 
the spirit which marked His life and ministry. 

The effort to make the organisation side of Church 
life minister to the unity of His Body is worth seri- 
ous thought and endeavor; and, if the laity of the 
Church can be inspired with this hope and purpose, 
and shown a plan that is devised with this end in 
view, the result will, doubtless, be the coming of a 
better day in which more efficient service will be 
rendered in a closer and more vital relation of 
Christian fellowship. 

Those who are called to serve in the organized 
life of the Church and who hesitate because of lack 
of experience, or the consciousness of lack of ability, 
should be reminded that "Christ does not call to His 
service those who are fit, but fits for His service those 
whom He calls." 

May He fit His priests and people and the plans 
devised in His Church to His own purpose of build- 
ing up the Church in the unity and power of His 
Spirit that, as a living and life-giving organism, it 
may do His will and be the revelation of Him who, 
incarnate in His Body, has destined It to become 
a triumphant and glorious Church, in which He shall 
"gather into one all the children of God". 



122 



APPENDIX 

WHAT THE CONGREGATION MAY 
EXPECT OF THE VESTRY 

1. An annual budget of parish expenses. 

2. An annual report of parish finances. 

3. That the parish property should be kept in good 

condition. 

4. That insurance on Church property should be 

kept up. 
o. The prompt payment of all Church obligations. 

6. An intelligent interest and active support in the 

Mission (or Xation-wide Campaign) respon- 
sibility of the Church. 

7. An adequate support of the parish school of 

religious education. 

8. That all money contributed should be used for 

the explicit purpose for which it was given. 

9. That the obligations of the parish to the diocese 

and the general Church are promptly paid and 
regularly forwarded. 
10. That the music, as a part of the worship of praise 
offered to God, is properly rendered and finan- 
cially sustained. 

123 



The Parish 

11. That the salary of the clergy be made and kept 

commensurate with the cost of living. 

12. A regular attendance upon all meetings of the 

vestry. 

13. An intelligent interest in the various departments 

of parish work. 

14. The attendance of vestrymen upon the services 

of the Church. 

15. That the records of the vestry meetings should 

be carefully kept. 

16. That the rector be provided with a car, in order 

that his time may be spent to the best interest 
of the parish. The maintenance of the car 
should be borne by the parish. 

17. That there should be an adequate office force to 

care for keeping in order the parish census, 
the parish account books, the visiting lists, and 
to do the stenographic and typewriting work. 
No board of bank directors would expect the 
bank president to spend his time cutting up 
deposit slips. 

18. That the parish be represented at the diocesan 

council, and that the representatives sent stay 
through. 

19. That the vestry exercise great care in giving the 

testimonials required for admission to Holy 
Orders. 

20. That, when necessary, the vestry should act as 

conciliators, seeking to reconcile differences 
arising which threaten to disrupt the unity of 
parish life. 

124 



Appendix 

WHAT THE VESTRY MAY EXPECT 
FROM THE CONGREGATION 

The vestry cannot do these things without the 
loyal cooperation of the congregation. As represen- 
tatives of the people, the vestry have the right to 
ask and expect 

1. A prompt and reg*ular payment of all pledges 

made by the people. 

2. That pledges, having been made, be sustained in 

order that the parish budget may be lived 
up to. 

3. That those having made pledges should increase 

the amount promised if circumstances permit, 
in order to offset losses incurred by death 
and removal. 

4. That the financial obligation to the parish be the 

prime obligation to loyalty and not. as often 
is the case, the first point at which a cut is 
made to reduce personal expenditure. 

5. That the people by loyalty, devotion, and har- 

monious cooperation make the parish an or- 
ganization which will give pride to a vestry 
which seeks to render service. 

STUDY SUBJECTS SUGGESTED FOR THE 
USE OF GROUP CLASSES 

1. The "Survey", with text book by Dr. Sturgis. 

2. The present world situation as a challenge to the 

Church. 

3. How the Church is now organized to meet the 

challenge. 

125 



The Parish 

4. The new form of parish organization, and what 

it asks of the laity. 

5. The parish programme of Eeligious Education. 

Courses of study outlined. 

6. Why people should attend church regularly, and 

why they do not. 

7. The call of the Altar, and the response to this 

call. 

8. The Americanization problem. 

9. At what points and in what ways can the Church 

influence the life of the city? 

10. Lessons in Church History. 

11. Lessons in the Book of Common Prayer. 

12. Reviews of assigned books. 

13. The value and need of the family altar. 

14. Christian Stewardship. 

15. What can the people do to enrich and vitalize 

public worship in the parish? 

16. Best methods of Bible study. 

17. The diocese; its work and its needs. 

18. Week-day religious education. 

19. The meaning and power of prayer. 

20. The relation of the fundamental truths of revela- 

tion and Church teaching to the problems of 
reconstruction. 

21. In what ways can the parish executive council, 

the Church service league, and the group or- 
ganization best serve the parish, and, through 
the parish, the general Church? 

126 



Appendix 

WHAT THE DEPARTMENT OF RELIG- 
IOUS EDUCATION MAY ASK OF 
THE PARISH 

1. The best man in the parish for lay school super- 

intendent. 

2. An adequate supply of men and women for the 

teaching staff. 

3. Church school visitors. 

4. Cooperation from parents in home preparation 

of work assigned in the Church school. 

5. Attendance of parents at meetings of the Par- 

ents' League. 

6. Adequate equipment for the school. 

7. Adequate appropriations from the vestry for 

school expenses. 

8. An interest, founded upon knowledge, in the 

work of the school. 

9. Boys for the ministry of the Church. 

10. Volunteer workers in the mission field. 

11. The daily intercessions of the congregation in 

behalf of the officers, teachers, and scholars of 
the Church school of religious education. 

WHAT THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL 
SERVICE MAY ASK OF THE PARISH 

1. Visitors to hospital wards and other institutions. 

2. District visitors. 

3. Settlement workers. 

4. Probation officers, acting under the Children's 

Court. 

127 



The Parish 

5. Big brothers and big sisters, for children with 

delinquent parents. 

6. Scout Masters, and other workers in Boys' De- 

partment. 

7. Friendly visitors for the parish poor. 

8. Leaders and workers in the G. F. S. and other 

organizations. 

9. Visitors for "shut-ins". 

10. Leaders for Americanization work. 

11. A motor corps for taking convalescents into the 

open. 

12. A quartette to sing in hospital wards and insti- 

tutions. 

13. Homes for working girls, or for unmarried 

mother and child. 

14. The study of community problems. 

15. Garment making for orphan asylums, institu- 

tions, and the parish poor. 

16. Entertainments for asylums and other institu- 

tions. 

17. Scrap books for children's wards in hospitals. 

18. Cooperation in city missionary work, civic insti- 

tutions, and enterprises for the public good. 

WHAT THE DEPARTMENT OF MISSIONS 
MAY ASK OF THE PARISH 

1. A glad and generous support of the mission of 

the General Church. 

2. Scrap books, dolls' clothes (from girls), dolls' 

houses, and furniture (from boys) for Christ- 
mas boxes and hospital wards. 

128 



Appendix 

3. Sewing for the Missionary Box. 

4. Attendance upon group study classes. 

5. Giving of life to the Cause, as ministers, medical 

missionaries, teachers, lay helpers. 

6. Daily intercession for Missions and missionary 

workers. 

7. Knowledge of the Mission of the Church. 

8. "Take the Spirit of Missions" and learn of the 

needs voiced there by the "Presiding Bishop 
and Council". 

9. The reading and consideration of official com- 

munications sent by the Church to its mem- 
bers. 
10. A prompt and regular payment of Nation-wide 
Campaign pledges. 

THE CHURCH NEWSPAPERS 

The Spirit of Missions. 

Church Missions House, 281 Fourth Avenue, New 

York City, N. Y. 

$1.00 per year. 
The Southern Churchman. 

815 East Grace Street, Richmond, Va. 

$3.00 per year. To the Clergy, $2.00 per year. 
The Living Church. 

The Morehouse Publishing Co., 1801 Fond du Lac 

Avenue, Milwaukee, Wis. 

$3.75 per year. To the clergy, $3.00 per year. 
The Churchman. 

381 Fourth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 

$4.00 per year. 
The Witness. 

The Witness Publishing Co., 6219 Cottage Grove 

Avenue, Chicago, 111. 

$1.50 per year. 

129 



The Parish 

LISTS OF BOOKS SUGGESTED 
FOR READING 

List of books suggested by 
REV. WM. E. GARDNER, D.D., 

Executive Secretary, 

Department of Religious Education, 

289 Fourth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 

(1) Authority of Religious Experience. Slattery. (Long- 

mans Green.) 

( 2 ) Religious Education in the Church. Cope. ( Scribner. ) 

(3) Religious Education in the Family. Cope. (Univ. of 

Chicago Press.) 

(4) Religious Education and Morals. Coe. (Revell.) 

(5) Children's Challenge to the Church. Gardner. (More- 

house Pub. Co.) 

(6) Organizing the Smaller Sunday School. Bradner. 

(Morehouse Pub. Co.) 

(7) Childhood and Character. Hartshorne. (Pilgrim 

Press. ) 

(8) Religious Education and American Democracy. 

Athearn. (Pilgrim Press.) 

List furnished by 

JOHN W. WOOD, D.C.L., 

Executive Secretary, Department of Missions, 
Presiding Bishop and Council. 

The Conquest of the Continent. By H. L. Burleson. 
The Alaskan Missions of the Episcopal Church. By Hudson 

Stuck. 
World Missionary Conference. 9 vols. 

The Gospel of the Kingdom. By Philip Mercer Rhinelander. 
The Missionary and His Critics. By James L. Barton. 
The Evangelization of the World in This Generation. By 

John R. Mott. 
History of Christian Missions. By Charles Henty Robinson. 

130 



Appendix 

The Social Aspects of Foreign Missions. By William H. P. 

Faunce. 
Educational Missions. By James L. Barton. 
Medical Missions: The Two-fold Task. By Walter R. 

Lambuth. 
The Healing of the Nations. By J. Butter Williamson. 
The Personal Life of David Livingstone. By W. Garden 

Blaikie. 
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides. By 

James Paton. 
Pastor Hsi: Confucian Scholar and Christian. By Mrs. 

Howard Taylor. 
Reminiscences of a Missionary Bishop. By Daniel Sylvester 

Tuttle. 
The Lure of Africa. By C. H. Patton. 
D. M. Thornton. By W. H. T. Gairdner. 
Eighteen Years in Uganda and East Africa. By A. R. Tucker. 
{South American Problems. By Robert E. Speer. 
Mexico To-day. By G. B. Winton. 

Ten Thousand Miles on a Dog Sled. By Hudson Stuck. 
The Emergency in China. By F. L. Hawks Pott. 
Village Life in China. By Arthur H. Smith. 
The Democratic Movement in Asia. By Dennett Tyler. 
India and Christian Opportunity. By Harlan P. Beach. 
Sunrise in the Sunrise Kingdom. By John H. DeForest. 
New Life in the Oldest Empire. By Charles F. Sweet. 
Students and World Advance. Report of S. V. M. Conven- 
tion, Des Moines, 1920. 
Handbook of Church Missions to the Indians. 
Southern Highlanders. By W. C. Whitaker. 

List furnished by 

REV. WALLACE E. ROLLINS, D.D., 

Professor of Church History, 

Virginia Theological Seminary, 

Alexandria, Va. 

( 1 ) Outlines of Church History. By Rudolph Sohm. 
(Macmillan.) 

131 



The Parish 

(A brief but brilliant sketch of general Church 
History.) 

(2) A History of the Church of England. By M. W. 

Patterson. ( Longmans. ) 
(The best single volume history of the English Church. 
Readable.) 

(3) A Layman's History of the Church of England. By 

G. R. Balleine. ( Longmans. ) 
(A briefer and more popular history. Admirably 
suited for busy laymen and for young people. De- 
lightfully written.) 

(4) How the Gospel Spread through Europe. By C. H. 

Bobinson. (S. P. C. K., Macmillan.) 
(A condensation and popularization of the author's 
larger volume. The Conversion of Europe. Long- 
mans. ) 

(5) The Second Century. By J. P. Whitney. (S. P. C. K., 

Macmillan. ) 
(This is a small but delightful study of the Church 
of the Second Century and its lessons by a foremost 
English scholar.) 

(6) Life of St. Francis of Assisi. By Sabatier. (Scrib- 

ners. ) 
(The best life of St. Francis and an admirable study 
of the period.) 

(7) Medieval Europe. By E. Emerton. (Ginn & Co.) 
(One of the best books on the period.) 

List furnished by 

VERY REV. HUGHELL E. W. FOSBROKE. D.D. : 

Dean. General Theological Seminary. 

Chelsea Square. 

New York, N. Y. 

(1) Essays in Orthodoxy. By O. C. Quick. (Macmillan.) 

(2) The Teaching of Christ. By E. C. Selwyn. (Long- 

mans.) 

132 



Appendix 

(3) The Spirit. By B. H. Streeter. ( Macmillan. ) 

(4) Christianity According to St. Luke. By S. C. Carpen- 

ter. (Longmans.) 

(5) The Faith of the Old Testament. By A. Nairne. 

(Longmans.) 

(6) The Faith oy Which We Live. By Charles Fiske. 

(Morehouse. ) 

There is another small book by 0. C. Quick called The 
Testing of Church Principles, which I hesitate to name 
because of its partial preoccupation with English problems. 
At the same time, these are seen in the light of principles 
which are of general application, and the book is to my 
mind very provocative of thought. 

List furnished by 

REV. SAMUEL TYLER, D.D.. 

Rector St. Luke's Church, 

Rochester, N. Y. 

Chairman of Social Service Department, 

Diocese of Western New York. 

By Walter Rauschenbusch : 

Christianity and the Social Crisis. (Macmillan.) 
The Social Principles of Jesus. ( Association Press.) 
For God and the People. ( Prayers. ) ( Pilgrim Press. ) 
A Theology for the Social Gospel. (Macmillan.) 

By Harry F. Ward: 

The New Social Order: Principles and Programme. 
1919. (Macmillan.) 

A Year Book of the Church and Social Service in the 
U. S. (History of Social Service in the Church.) 
1916. (Missionary Education Movement.) 

The Social Creed of the Churches. 1914. (Abingdon 
Press. ) 

Christianizing Community Life. (Ward and Ed- 
ward.) 1919. (Asso. Press.) 

133 



The Parish 

By A. J. W. Myers: 

Christian Life in the Community. 1919. (Associa- 
tion Press.) 
By T. G. Soares: 

The Social Institutions and Ideals of the Bible. 1915. 
(Abingdon Press.) 
By F. G. Peabody: 

Jesus Christ and the Social Question. (Macmillan.) 

List furnished by 

REV. B. TALBOT ROGERS, D.D., 

Rector St. Luke's Church, 
Brockport, New York. 

The following are, in my opinion, admirable books for 
the laity: 

(1) Faith of the Gospel. Mason. 

(2) Natural Religion. Staley. 

(3) What Men Live By. Cabot. 

(4) Autobiography of Dr. Trudeau. Trudeau. 

(5) Man's Place in the Universe. Wallace. 

(6) The World of Life. Wallace. 

(7) Bishop Grafton's works. 

(8) The Religion of the Church. Bishop Gore. 

List furnished by 

REV. W. COSBY BELL, D.D., 

Professor of Theology, 

Virginia Theological Seminary, 

Alexandria, Va. 

The books which I suggest are rather simple, yet they 
are very scholarly and sane and do not presuppose much 
knowledge of theology. 

(1) The Historic Faith. B. F. Westcott. (Macmillan.) 
or 
The Meaning of the Creed. G. K. A. Bell. (Mac- 

134 



Appendix 

millan.) (This is somewhat more difficult and is 
written with special reference to present day prob- 
lems. It is made up of a series of papers, written 
by various men (D'Arcy, Xairne, Stanton, V. H. 
Mozley, Holland, Chase, Swete, etc.) for the English 
National Mission of Repentance — (now collected and 
bound. ) 

(2) The Bible, Its Origin and Nature. Marcus Dods. 

(3) Peake's Commentary on the Bible. (1 vol.) (More- 

house Pub. Co.) (A valuable book of introduction 

and commentary on the whole Bible : published last 

Winter. ) 
or 
History of the Church to 325 A. D. H. X. Bate. 

( Gorham. ) 
Elementary History of the Church in Great Britain. 

R. H. Hutton. (Gorham.) 
(Companion volumes from the Oxford Library of 

Practical Theology.) 

(4) The Episcopal Church. Rev. George Hodges. (Mac- 

millan. ) 

(5) The Jesus of History. T. C. Glover. (Association 

Press.) 

(6) The Meaning of Prayer. Fosdick. 



List furnished by 
REV. CHARLES LEWIS SLATTERY, D.D., 

Rector of Grace Church. 
New York, N. Y. 

(1) The Episcopal Church. Rev. George Hodges. 

(2) The Prayer Book. Suter & Addison. (Macmillan.) 

( 3 ) Biographies : 

f Bishop Whipple's Lights and Shadows of a Long 

Episcopate. 
] Bishop Tuttle's Reminiscences. 
[Life of Bishop Brooks. 

135 



The Parish 

(4) The History of the American Episcopal Church. Mc- 

Connell. 

(5) Daily Strength for Daily Needs. 
(A book of daily devotions.) 

Note. The author would suggest Why Men Pray, and Row 
to Pray, by Dr. Slattery (Macmillan), and The 
Power of Prayer, being a selection of Walker Trust 
Essays, etc., edited by Rev. W. P. Patterson, D.D., 
Professor of Divinity, University of Edinburgh (Mac- 
millan, $4.00) ; also The Church's Life, by Wm. C. 
Sturgis (Church Missions House, 281 Fourth avenue. 
New York). 



136 



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